Growing up in North Buffalo, Brenda Freedman and her brother, Donald, always knew their mother, Maryann Saccomando Freedman, was someone special.
They didn’t realize until later in life how special she was.
“I always knew what a loving, totally dedicated mother she was,” recalled Brenda Freedman, now an Erie County Family Court judge. “No matter what she was doing, she always had time for us. As kids, we didn’t know what an important person she was.”
The woman who always found time to play and read stories with her kids was also a successful Buffalo attorney who became the first woman ever to serve as president of the Erie County and New York State bar associations.
She died June 12 under hospice care in Elderwood Skilled Nursing Facility, Amherst, following a long illness. She was 89.
Colleagues remember her as a smart, tough, kind and sometimes outspoken attorney who was one of a handful of female attorneys in Buffalo when she entered the legal profession in 1958.
She stood barely 5 feet tall, but was a “dynamo,” friends recalled.
“Maryann was a remarkable woman, an exceptional attorney, a battler and a great friend,” said Robert N. Convissar, her former law partner, friend and another former Erie County Bar Association president.
“I truly believe that she will go down as a very important figure in the history of law practice in Buffalo and Erie County. She knocked on doors and knocked down walls her entire career.”
Convissar said longtime Buffalo attorneys will never forget Mrs. Freedman’s high-profile battle with the prestigious and exclusive Buffalo Club during her tenure as county bar association president in 1980.
As Mrs. Freedman told the story, she and two male bar association directors went to the club for a meeting and tried to enter through the front door. A club official stopped her, saying she needed to use a “women’s entrance” at the side of the building and go up a pink elevator to the room where the meeting was held.
“My mother said, ‘I’m here as president of the Erie County Bar Association, and I’m going to walk in with my associates,’” her daughter said. “They would not let her in the front door, so she left, and promised to sue.”
The Buffalo News and other media publicized the incident, and the New York Times followed with a story.
The Buffalo Club later changed its policies, not only regarding the front entrance but also allowing women to become club members.
“That whole thing was typical of Maryann,” Convissar said. “She was the sweetest person in the entire world, until you belittled her or discriminated against her or other women.”
Raised in working-class neighborhoods on Buffalo’s East and West sides, Mrs. Freedman was the daughter of Vincenzo and Rosaria Saccomando, immigrants from Sicily.
“Her parents did not attend school past eighth grade but they both, especially her dad, were determined that she was going to graduate from college and become a professional,” Brenda Freedman said.
Mrs. Freedman graduated from Grover Cleveland High School, the University at Buffalo and UB Law School. In 1958, she was one of just three women in a graduating class of more than 100.
“At first, many law firms told her, ‘We’re not going to hire you, we’re not ready for a woman attorney,’ ” Brenda Freedman said. “When she finally did get a job, she was paid less than men doing the same work.”
During the early days of her 64-year legal career, some male attorneys served as friends and mentors to Mrs. Freedman, while others made crude sexist remarks about her, her family said.
“To those who abused her, she learned to give it right back to them, in full force,” Brenda Freedman said.
Mrs. Freedman was a longtime member of the Cohen & Lombardo law firm. She served for a time as an assistant state attorney general, a state court law clerk and a matrimonial referee and case mediator in the state courts.
After becoming Erie County’s first female bar association president, she became the first woman to head the state’s bar association, one of the largest organizations of lawyers in the United States.
Domenick Napoletano, president of the New York State Bar Association, called Mrs. Freedman a fighter and mentor who inspired women attorneys throughout the state.
“Maryann Saccomando Freedman led by example, making it easier for women and people of color to rise to the top ranks of the New York State Bar Association and the profession,” Napoletano said in a statement issued after her death. “She excelled at breaking down barriers for the next generation of female lawyers… She will be deeply missed.”
Mrs. Freedman also played major roles in many other organizations, including the Women Lawyers’ Association of Western New York, Erie County Aid to Indigent Prisoners Society, Zonta, the Buffalo Geological Association, Western New York Heritage Magazine and the Committee to Form a Buffalo Presidential Center.
She also served with the governor’s statewide Judicial Screening Committee, the American Bar Association, Legal Services for the Elderly, the Erie County Bar Foundation and organizations devoted to helping the poor and sexual assault victims.
She was a member of the Stabilization Committee of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Organization of Italian-American Women and Erie County Citizens Committee against Rape and Sexual Assault. She chaired the United Way Task Force on Delivery of Legal Services to the Poor and was a framer of the City of Buffalo’s Code of Ethics.
Among the awards she received were the state Bar Association’s prestigious Ruth G. Schapiro Award, the Erie County Bar Association’s Lawyer of the Year, Westchester Legal Services Award, the Hilbert College Fellows Medal, the Interclub Council’s Susan B. Anthony Award, the Women Lawyers’ Career Achievement Award and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s Woman of the Year.
UB and the UB Law School each honored her as a Distinguished Alumna and The Buffalo News named her an Outstanding Citizen of 1986. In 2001, she was elected to the Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame.
She last spoke to The News in May 2023, in an interview about “Buffalo Stories – The Life of Maryann Saccomando Freedman,” a play about her life presented by the Road Less Traveled Theater.
She said she felt greatly honored – and “a bit weird” – to know that a play was focusing on her life.
“I’m probably most proud of heading the state bar association and the Erie County bar, two jobs that really tested my stamina,” she said. “When you are the first woman to head an organization like that, many people are waiting and watching for you to make a mistake, trip up somehow.”
Robert Freedman, her husband of 58 years and also an attorney, died in 2019.
Besides her daughter and son, she is survived by a brother, Salvatore Saccomando, and six grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Sunday in Temple Beth Zion, 805 Delaware Ave., followed by a graveside service in Forest Lawn.