On May 6, 2026, at the Legal Services of Long Island’s 60th Diamond Jubilee Gala at The Piermont in Babylon, New York, Cheryl Fratello, Esq. was honored with the Barbara J. Mehrman Commitment to Justice Award — one of the most meaningful recognitions our firm has ever received.
We are humbled, grateful, and deeply proud.
About Legal Services of Long Island
For sixty years, Legal Services of Long Island (LSLI) has been a lifeline for individuals and families across Long Island who face legal challenges they cannot navigate alone. Seniors on fixed incomes. Families facing eviction. Parents trying to hold on to housing while navigating a broken benefits system. LSLI has been there — not just with legal advice, but with the advocacy, determination, and compassion to change outcomes and, in many cases, change systems.
LSLI has gone to court and won — securing judicial orders that have kept families experiencing homelessness, or on the verge of it, in their homes. Those victories didn’t just help individual families. They created programs that exist today because this organization refused to accept that the law is only for those who can afford it.
Cheryl has had the privilege of serving on LSLI’s Advisory Council since 2012, and in that time, she has witnessed up close what this work truly looks like — and why it matters so much.
The Woman Behind the Award
This award carries extraordinary meaning not just because of the recognition, but because of who it honors. Barbara J. Mehrman first walked through the doors of Legal Services of Long Island in the 1970s — not as a donor, not as a volunteer, but as a client. She was a mother of four, going through a divorce, and in desperate need of help securing public assistance benefits to keep her family afloat. LSLI was there for her.
Barbara never forgot it. She went on to build a remarkable career, ultimately serving as Director and Assistant Dean of Career Services at Touro Law Center and Executive Director of the Suffolk County Bar Association. All four of her children went on to have successful careers of their own — and she credited LSLI for making that possible. She believed, with her whole heart, that the help she received set the course of her family’s life.
Years later, Barbara joined the Advisory Council herself. She gave everything she had — her time, her talent, her financial support, and her voice. She stood up at events and shared her story openly, encouraging others to support the mission. She never stopped being grateful. She never stopped giving back.
Barbara Mehrman believed that everyone deserves equal justice — regardless of their financial situation. She lived that belief. To receive an award in her name is an honor beyond words.
Why This Award Hits Close to Home
There is a remarkable coincidence — or perhaps something more than a coincidence — woven into this story.
Cheryl recently learned that Barbara Mehrman lived in Stony Brook on the very same street she grew up on and just across the street from her two childhood best friends — women who are still her closest friends today. She never knew Barbara then. But somehow, all these years later, their stories have found each other.
It’s the kind of thing that reminds you that Long Island is smaller, and more connected, than we sometimes realize — and that one act of kindness can send ripples further than anyone imagines.
Shared Values, Different Clients
The families we serve at Fratello Law — in Smithtown, Syosset, and communities across Nassau and Suffolk County — are often facing their own moments of crisis. A parent’s memory is beginning to fail. A spouse is suddenly facing a nursing home. A family realizes they haven’t taken the steps to protect what they spent a lifetime building. These circumstances might differ from those of the families LSLI serves, but the underlying truth is exactly the same:
When people have access to the right information and the right advocate, their lives change.
That is the belief that drives elder law and estate planning at Fratello Law. It is the belief that has driven Legal Services of Long Island for sixty years. And it is the belief that Barbara Mehrman embodied until the very end.
Thank You
Cheryl would like to extend her heartfelt congratulations to her fellow honorees — Scott Karson and the family of Victor Ambrose — and to express deep gratitude to Sheila Johnson and Cathy Lucidi, whose introductions, encouragement, and unwavering commitment to LSLI’s mission made last night possible.
Thank you to everyone at Legal Services of Long Island for sixty years of showing up for the people of Long Island who needed someone in their corner. And thank you to the clients, colleagues, and community partners who have trusted Fratello Law to walk alongside them.
Where dignity meets justice — we will keep building that place together.