Family Court attorney being recognized

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Adele Fine has been looking out for the underdog since she was still a mere a pup herself.

Long before she represented indigent adults in Monroe County Family Court, she was volunteering to help children with special needs.

Fine grew up during the 1960s and 70s, periods of social upheaval in the United States and around the world. She said the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had an impact on her.

From the time she was about 10 or 11, she said she wanted to advocate for people who were marginalized, not viewed as important — the underdogs.

“I was an idealist,” Fine said. “I believed in justice.”

She has spent more than 25 years doing just that, including the last 14 advocating for indigent adults in a variety of emotional Family Court matters. Her latter efforts will be recognized by her colleagues Saturday when Fine is honored with the Award for Excellence in Indigent Adult Representation in Family Court. The award will be presented at the 2014 Defense Community Dinner at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Fine was nominated by her colleagues in the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys.

“I’m quite pleased,” said Monroe County Public Defender Timothy P. Donaher. “I think she’s a remarkable Family Court attorney. She has done an excellent job in supervising the Family Court Bureau in the public defender’s office. She’s just an outstanding attorney, a great supervisor and I’m just very very pleased she was selected as GRAWA’s nominee for the award.”

The award, first given out last year, recognizes an attorney who practices in Monroe County Family Court, displaying exceptional dedication to his or her indigent adult client, excellent advocacy skills and superior knowledge of the law.

Fine represents indigent parents accused of abusing or neglecting their children and may be at risk of losing their children or going to jail for nonpayment of child support — very serious issues with potentially severe consequences, especially if they have no one to represent them.

“I feel like I am one of many attorneys who do an awesome job in Family Court and if by winning this award, I help to shed a little light on what we do, then I’m very happy about it,” she said.

Fine said she knows it sounds crazy, but she very much enjoys representing parents in abuse and neglect cases. She feels like it is her calling.

She enjoys helping people who have done a phenomenal job after overcoming what seemed like insurmountable odds, such as mothers with substance abuse issues who get their lives back together for the sake of their children and themselves.

“They come from tough circumstances and had to live with demons and came out on top,” Fine said. “I’m often awestruck. I wonder if I would have that kind of strength if I was in their situation.”

Fine loves the law, particularly on a structural and intellectual level. She loves the legal arguments. Even as a child, she said she was good at arguing and liked reading and writing.

On a broader level, Fine said she likes feeling enmeshed in and being part of trying to address some of the major societal issues going on around her. In her own small way, she likes being able to address poverty, something she considers one of the biggest public health issues.

“I have a general belief that our judicial system is only as just as the justice given to the most marginalized citizens,” she said. “With respect to Family Court, I think I enjoy the people that I represent and the problem-solving aspect of my job, the emotional aspect of my job. I think that all becomes addictive over time.”

Fine, who is originally from the Southern New Jersey-Philadelphia area, is a 1987 graduate of the University of Montana School of Law. She has always focused on public interest law and began her career as managing attorney of an office of Montana Legal Services Association, where she had interned while still in law school.

Fine returned east a couple of years later to rekindle a relationship with Dennis Wood, who was living in Rochester. They later married and still live in the city. They have one daughter, Olivia Wood, a sophomore at State University, Purchase College. Fine also has a stepdaughter, Kaye Nagle-Wood, an entrepreneur in Miami.

Unable to find public interest law work in Rochester, Fine took a job as an associate in the law office of A. Vincent Buzard, now appellate counsel for Harris Beach PLLC. She worked with him until 1995 and then went back into indigent representation, working with private not-for-profit agencies until 2000 when she joined the public defender’s office, where she also supervises its Family Court section.

Fine also enjoys the aspect of organizing continuing legal education seminars for attorneys doing the same kind of work.

Donaher said she is very active on the state level, as well, weighing in on legislation and its potential impact on the Family Court system.

Fine is part of a working group of lawyers and social workers from around the state who are developing standards for attorneys who represent adults in child protective proceedings.

“Adele has been an integral and very valued member of that working group for not only her dedication to clients, but the passion she has for providing quality representation to adults who have been accused of abuse and neglect,” said Angela Burton, director of quality enhancement for parent representation at the state Office of Indigent Legal Services.

She said Fine was one of the first people she called upon about a year ago when she was assembling the working group.

Burton said attorneys who represent adult Family Court clients and their cases work under meager conditions without a lot of resources or support, so it was very important to have someone like Fine to help provide the services needed in this area of law.

“I felt that she had the breadth and the depth to bring really great value to the endeavor we’re working on,” Burton said, noting she is also very honored and pleased to be introducing Fine at the Defense Community Dinner. “I think that she’s an excellent choice for this award,” she added.

The Defense Community Dinner will feature Abbe Smith, professor of law, director of the Criminal Defense and Prisoner Advocacy Clinic and co-director of the E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship Program at Georgetown Law School, where she has taught since 1996.

Smith teaches and writes in the areas of criminal defense, legal ethics, juvenile justice and clinical legal education. She has also written numerous law journal articles and co-authored a number of books on different aspects of the legal profession.

Other highlights will include the presentation of the Jeffrey A. Jacobs Memorial Award to Rochester attorney Lawrence L. Kasperek (Easton Thompson Kasperek Shiffrin LLP) and the first Monroe County Public Defender’s Office’s Service of Justice Award to the Monroe County Pre-Trial Services Corp. Both will be featured in The Daily Record next week, along with a gallery of event photos.

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