Hon. Fernando M. Camacho, 2023 Abely Awards Honoree

Sanctuary for Families

Established 26 years ago by Davis Polk, Sanctuary for Families, and Columbia Law School, the Abely Awards honor individuals who have made a difference in the lives of survivors of gender violence.

Established 26 years ago by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, Sanctuary for Families, and Columbia Law School, the Abely Awards honor individuals who have made a difference in the lives of survivors of gender violence and who embody Maryellen Abely’s compassion, zeal, energy, and dedication.

This year, we are thrilled to present the 2023 Abely Leading Women and Children to Safety Award to the Honorable Fernando M. Camacho.

INTRODUCING JUDGE CAMACHO

The Honorable Fernando Camacho is an Acting Justice of the Suffolk County Supreme Court in the Tenth Judicial District of New York, where he presides over Suffolk County’s CONCEPTS Court, which he spearheaded in January 2021. Providing alternatives to residential placement for youth charged as Juvenile Delinquents in Family Court, the CONCEPTS Court offers assistance and support to court-involved children from the ages of twelve to seventeen, many of whom have been victims of sex-trafficking. From 2013 until 2021, Judge Camacho was assigned to Suffolk County Supreme Court where he created and presided over the Suffolk County Felony Youth Part, which provided alternatives to incarceration for young people charged with felonies.

Judge Camacho began his legal career at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where he worked in the Trial Division, the Sex Crimes Unit, and the Homicide Unit. In 1991 he was promoted to Senior Trial Counsel and assigned to the Homicide Investigation Unit, a joint state and federal task force, where he directed long term homicide investigations and prosecutions of violent gangs.

In 1997 Judge Camacho became a New York City Criminal Court Judge in Brooklyn. Assigned to Queens County in 2002, he served as the Deputy Supervising Judge and presided over the Domestic Violence Court.

In 2003 Judge Camacho created a pioneering treatment court with a mission to stop the incarceration of persons charged with prostitution. That court was the spark that led to the creation of the present day Human Trafficking Intervention Courts operating throughout New York State and a groundbreaking National Summit on Human Trafficking and State Courts in 2015, hosted by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.

Appointed to the New York State Court of Claims in 2008, Judge Camacho also served as an Acting Supreme Court Justice in the Integrated Domestic Violence Court in Queens County Supreme Court. In 2009 he was promoted him to the position of County Administrative Judge for Criminal Matters. While serving as administrative judge he also created and presided over the Queens County Supreme Court Youth Diversion Part, a specialized diversion court for adolescents charged with felony offenses.

Over the last two decades years Judge Camacho has inspired and shaped the New York State court system’s response to human trafficking, advocating for more resources to assist victims of sex trafficking and for a response that shields trafficked and commercially sexually exploited adults and children from criminalization while holding their exploiters accountable. He has been a speaker at numerous state and national conferences and training seminars on the topics of juvenile justice, sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of youth.

Judge Camacho obtained his undergraduate degree from Columbia College and graduated from Fordham Law School.

Dara Sheinfeld, 2023 Abely Awards Honoree

Sanctuary for Families

Established 26 years ago by Davis Polk, Sanctuary for Families, and Columbia Law School, the Abely Awards honor individuals who have made a difference in the lives of survivors of gender violence.

Established 26 years ago by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, Sanctuary for Families, and Columbia Law School, the Abely Awards honor individuals who have made a difference in the lives of survivors of gender violence and who embody Maryellen Abely’s compassion, zeal, energy, and dedication.

This year, we are thrilled to present the 2023 Abely Pro Bono Award to Dara Sheinfeld.

INTRODUCING DARA

Dara Sheinfeld is Counsel and Head of Pro Bono Litigation at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where she leads pro bono litigation initiatives focusing on trial work and matters assisting survivors of domestic violence.

As Head of Pro Bono Litigation, Dara oversees pro bono family court litigation, post-conviction relief matters in criminal courts, federal civil rights and Hague Convention actions, and civil and criminal appeals. Focusing much of her time on the representation of survivors of domestic violence, Dara has led Davis Polk teams that have achieved precedent-setting litigation victories on their behalf, securing U.S. refuge under the Hague Convention for multiple families and early release from prison as a result of numerous resentencing applications and clemency petitions.

In Hague litigation in the S.D.N.Y. and E.D.N.Y., Dara has first chaired four matters, all resulting in trial wins or negotiated resolutions that allowed domestic violence survivors and their children to remain in New York, free from the abuse they had suffered in their home countries.

Since New York passed the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA) in 2019, Dara has been integral to the resentencing of over a dozen survivors – cumulatively reducing their sentences by decades.

Dara’s advocacy has also led to multiple grants of clemency, including for a survivor of severe domestic violence, who, after having been kidnapped at gunpoint by her estranged husband, and forced to participate in his crimes, had been convicted and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.

Through her supervision, Dara helps Davis Polk lawyers develop and strengthen their trial and investigative skills and serves as a resource to other law firms on pro bono best practices. She is also an invaluable resource to numerous public interest legal services organizations, strategizing with their lawyers about complex cases and bringing pro bono resources to areas of great client need.

Earlier in her career, Dara spent five years as the Director of Sanctuary for Families’ family law practice in the Bronx and Manhattan Family Justice Centers. She still volunteers monthly to conduct legal screenings at the Manhattan Family Justice Center.

Prior to working at Sanctuary, Dara was a litigation associate at Davis Polk and clerked for Judge Harold Baer, Jr., in the S.D.N.Y.  She is a graduate of New York University Law School and Brown University.

 

Photos and Highlights from the 2015 Abely Awards

Sanctuary for Families

We were proud to honor tireless advocates against gender violence.

Last week, members of New York’s legal, civic and anti-gender violence communities gathered to honor United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Judge Pamela K. Chen and Jennifer L. Kroman, Director of Pro Bono Services at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, at the Nineteenth Annual Abely Awards.

View photos from the event.

Co-hosted with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Columbia Law School, The Abely Awards recognize individuals who make a difference in the lives of domestic violence and sex trafficking survivors.

This year’s honorees have each used their distinguished legal backgrounds to provide survivors of sex trafficking with opportunities to live their lives free from violence and control.

We were grateful to be joined by The Honorable Judith S. Kaye, retired New York judge and the first woman to occupy the State Judiciary’s highest office, who with Legal Director Dorchen Leidholdt presented the awards.

While US Attorney General Loretta Lynch could not attend the event, she accepted her award by video, recounting her experiences working with Sanctuary to prosecute traffickers during her time as US Attorney for the Easter District of New York. Watch her full video thanks:

We were also proud to honor Judge Pamela K. Chen, a federal district court judge in the Eastern District of New York, and a true pioneer in the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking crimes.

We also honored Jennifer L. Kroman, Director of Pro Bono Practice at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, and a longtime Sanctuary supporter and Board Member. Jennifer leads Cleary’s award-winning pro bono practice and maintains an active docket representing survivors of sex trafficking in vacatur cases.

Since 1997, the Abely Awards have celebrated the life and legacy of Maryellen Abely, a pro bono attorney at Sanctuary for Families’ Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services.

An alumna of Columbia Law School, and an associate at Davis Polk, Ms. Abely was a tireless advocate for the rights of victims of domestic abuse and one of Sanctuary’s first pro bono attorneys. She died in 1995 after a long battle with cancer.

Learn more about the Abely Awards.