2009 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE’S DAVID AWARD HONOREE.

FREDERICK BREWINGTON, ESQ.

Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington

Frederick Brewington’s “intellectual curiosity” about the outcome of his failed 1987 bid for election to the Hempstead Town Board awakened his interest in possible infringement on minority representation and sparked dramatic changes in the systems of government in the Town and Nassau County. After speaking with friends and associates at the Center for Constitutional Rights in Manhattan where he interned during law school, he worked with the Center and its Constitution and civil rights lawyers and “collectively formed a voting rights case using models from the South and applying them to what was going on in New York,” he recalls.

As a result of the successful Goosby v Town of Hempstead case, which Brewington calls “the Mother Voting Rights Case” on Long Island, the Town of Hempstead’s at-large voting system was dismantled. In its place, the Federal Courts created six Councilmanic districts, allowing African-American voters the chance to elect candidates of their choice. Brewington assisted in a subsequent case, NAACP v Nassau County Board of Elections, which stopped the discriminatory purging of African-American voters who were stricken from the voting roles at a rate three times higher than that of whites. The Goosby decision also served as a foundation for Jackson v County of Nassau, which, based on the one person, one vote standard, invalidated the Board of Supervisors and created the County Legislature, allowing the opportunity for persons of color to have representation through new Legislative Districts.

“We tried to correct some of the problems that seemed to be discriminatory in their application,” says Brewington, a respected lawyer, lay preacher and community advocate. He continued his enthusiasm for challenging injustices throughout his distinguished 25-year legal career through litigation, writing, lecturing and efforts to build meaningful relationships among all people.
After working briefly with C. Vernon Mason and operating his own practice in Manhattan, Brewington relocated his offices to Hempstead. He notes that his offices have been cited as the largest African-American owned law firm on Long Island. But, he then qualifies largest by saying, “We have only six lawyers.” The juxtaposition of “his small minority owned practice against the many Long Island law firms with page upon page of lawyers seems to make us all scratch our heads,” he says.

“I often, because of my faith beliefs and involvement in the United Methodist Church, consider the work we do as a staff to be a form of ministry,” remarks Brewington, and he references the words of the prophet Amos, that he seeks to have “justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” His receipt of the Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Commitment to Justice Award reflects his endeavors—a sustained focus on affordable housing, community revitalization, employment and civil rights, environment, and especially, voting rights and fair presentation in government. Likewise, his commitment to peace and community was recognized by Morehouse College, which awarded him the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Community Builders Award in 2007.
Brewington has published scholarly articles in law reviews, magazines and newspapers, which often address serious issues from an engaging prospective. He discussed Rosa Parks’ contribution in “More than a Bus Seat,” and compared racism and discrimination in America, learned behaviors, ingrained in our culture, to an inane action in “Hopping on One Foot: An Evaluation of Race in America.”

A sought-after and dynamic lecturer, keynote and commencement speaker, conference moderator and panelist, Brewington has engaged audiences at colleges and universities, professional, service and religious organizations, bar associations, community groups, and NAACP and Civil Liberties Union chapters. He has spoken at countless annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebrations and Black History Month programs. He has addressed gatherings of adults and young people in multiple settings, including—law schools, the Nassau County Caucus of Black Democrats, League of Women Voters, Interfaith Alliance of Nassau County, Hempstead Boys and Girls Club and Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership (LEAP).
Raised in Lakeview, Brewington played varsity football at Malverne High School and graduated, with honors, with a BA in sociology from SUNY Albany, where he continued his interest in football. He was selected as the student commencement speaker at graduation from Northeastern University School of Law in 1982.

Brewington says, “An important component of my giving back to the community is interacting with young people who are going through a process and trying to figure out this whole life thing.” In an extraordinary 26-year-run, Brewington has served as an assistant football coach at Malverne High school—renting trucks and hauling equipment to training camp and routinely supplementing camp fees for team members. As Vice Chair of Lakeview Youth Federation, Brewington works with teen athletes. He says their annual Friendship Games, a winter track meet held on Dr. King’s birthday, brings together over 1200 high school students “to learn the lessons of mutual cooperation and friendly, healthy competition.” He adds, “If you come to the Nassau County College Field House you’ll see a sea of young people grouped together and talking. It’s like an organized beehive.”
Brewington chairs the Board of Directors of ERASE Racism, serves as trustee of the Hempstead United Methodist Church and Adjunct Professor, Fuchsberg Law School, Touro College. He has provided pro bono legal services to the community and not-for-profit organizations. He served as president of the SUNY Albany Alumni Association and is currently a member of the Council of Classes. He was recently appointed by New York Governor David Paterson as a member of the Commission on Judicial Nomination, evaluating candidates for the Court of Appeals, and is expected to play a key role in recommending a replacement for retiring Chief Judge Judith Kaye.

Brewington’s wife, Adrienne, is a former attorney who served as a District Attorney and worked in the Attorney General’s office and in her husband’s practice. She served as pastor of Westbury United Methodist Church, before being elevated to district superintendent, Long Island East Division, New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church—“a pastor to the pastors and part of the Bishop’s Cabinet,” adds Brewington. Dog lovers and Freeport residents, the Brewington’s enjoy singing in the Shepherd Singers, a gospel group he helped form while attending the Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist. A fisherman and outdoor enthusiast, Brewington has an interest in going back to school to study music. He says, “I consider the world an ongoing classroom.”

NETWORKING® January 2009