At the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association’s annual dinner Thursday night, Justice Connie Mallafre-Melendez was honored not just for her service on the bench but for the journey that led her there: a story of migration, sacrifice and resilience.

Held at the Liberty Warehouse in Red Hook, the event brought together judges, lawyers, students and bar leaders to celebrate a century-old organization shaped by generations of women in law. Mallafre-Melendez, a Kings County Supreme Court judge, received the Beatrice M. Judge Award and became the emotional center of the evening as she dedicated the honor to her mother, who fled Cuba during the rise of authoritarian rule.

“She was a twenty-something-year-old married woman in Cuba,” Mallafre-Melendez said. “She saw before businesses were taken over by

See Full Page