Linda Toga, the new president of the Suffolk County Women’s Bar Association, has followed a twisting path.
The New Jersey native attended college in Maine before earning a master’s degree in biology – with a concentration in electron microscopy – from Boston College Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She was involved in early neurological research into the causes of Alzheimer’s disease when she moved to Manhattan with her husband.
Toga left the biomedical field when her first child was born, and was living in Albany when she decided to attend law school. The jump from biomedical work to the law was shorter than one might think, Toga said, since both involve a research, reading and attention to detail.
Toga enrolled at Hofstra University School of Law in 1995 and joined the Suffolk County Women’s Bar Association – a wise career move, she said.
“Through the SCWBA, I have met women who are always available to answer questions and to offer support as professional attorneys,” Toga said. “They’ve become mentors and longtime friends.”
After graduating law school in 1998, Toga first worked with the firm now known as Lazer Aptheker Rosella & Yedid P.C. in Melville, doing mostly commercial litigation law. In 2005, she set out on her own, setting up shop in East Setauket.
Having her own practice allows her more flexibility and the ability to choose which clients she wants to work with, Toga said. She’s also shifted her legal focus to estate planning and elder law, where she felt she could do the most good, Toga said, listening to people, educating them about the law and helping them solve problems.
“I am not only an attorney, but a teacher and a therapist,” she said.
As president of the Women’s Bar Association, Toga said she plans to reach out to law school students and newly admitted attorneys to increase membership. “Those people are the future of our organization,” she said.
The organization has more than 250 attorneys and 70 law students as members. It offers a tremendous support system for new attorneys, with opportunities for networking and the chance to seek advice from more experienced attorneys who can “reach back and help the people behind you advance,” Toga said.
The bar is also important in that it addresses the legal needs of women in society on such issues as domestic violence, pay inequity and job discrimination.
Toga succeeds Robin Abramowitz as president. Abramowitz is a partner at Lazer Aptheker, where she cochairs the firm’s litigation practice group and works on matrimonial and bankruptcy issues. Abramowitz predicts a strong year for Toga, who has risen rapidly through the ranks of the organization.
“She’s a terrific attorney, very organized and very dedicated,” Abramowitz said. “She’s already off to a running start. She’s a person who takes charge. She’s a person who volunteers. You know that when she takes on a project, it’s going to get done. You give it to Linda, that’s it, it’s done.”
As Seen In July 13-19, 2007 Long Island Business News
©2007, Long Island Business News, all rights reserved
Ross Daly 631.913.4230 [email protected].
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Linda M. Toga of The Law Offices of Linda M. Toga, P.C. is an East Setauket, New York attorney with a general law practice focusing on estate planning, real estate, marital planning, small business services and litigation.