New York Social Security Disability Bar Dinner

Had a great time last Thursday night at the New York Social Security Bar Dinner. Along with five other attorneys and staff from my office, we got a chance to socialize and laugh with old friends and colleagues, including Richard Morris and Vic Fusco. Judge Emanuel Poverstein from the Long Island Office of Hearings & Appeals was presented with the Lester Rosen Memorial Award – the highest honor an Administrative Law Judge in the New York region can attain. In his acceptance speech, Judge Poverstein humbly described the role of a Social Security Judge: “Helping the most vulnerable in our society – the disabled”. Sounds like he was a fan of the late Senator Hubert H. Humphrey.
When I started practicing Social Security Law in 1990, both Judges Poverstein and Rosen sat together in the old Hempstead Hearing Office. Prior to his untimely death, I was fortunate to have learned the law from Judge Rosen, who was then widely considered the Dean of the New York Social Security judiciary. Judge Poverstein had just transfered from his prior assignment in Arizona and he became a “Rosen-like” Judge – compassionate and scholarly with a dry sense of humor. One of his particular strengths is evaluating mental disability claims. If you have a client with a mental disability, you hope Judge Poverstein is assigned to your case. Like former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, ‘he knows it when he sees it’.