Two receive bar association award

Elizabeth Pessala, associate justice for the village of Westbury, and Angelo Mangia, former counsel to the State Senate majority, have received the Nassau Bar Association President’s Award for keeping members informed of pending local, state and national legislation.

Bar Association president Susan Katz Richman said she appointed Pessala and Mangia to new positions of legislative liaisons to help members decide whether to take positions on proposed legislation.

“They kept their ears and eyes open and then continually checked what might be of interest to their members,” Richman said. “They would do research and tell \[the association\], here’s the legislation, who’s proposing it and here’s both sides of the issue.”

As volunteers, she said, “These two went above and beyond the call.”

Pessala is a former Nassau deputy county executive while Mangia served as majority counsel when the late Sen. Ralph Marino was state Senate majority leader.