Langston McFadden believes everyone needs a place at the table

Incoming Monroe County Bar Association President Langston D. McFadden wants local attorneys to be community leaders.

“The hope during my tenure is to return attorneys to that mission of being leaders, and not just leaders of their careers, or leaders of their law firms,” said McFadden, a partner at Pullano & Farrow PLLC.

He wants to form a “symbiotic relationship with the business community as well as the everyday social community of Rochester,” he said.

McFadden is an excellent choice to lead the Bar Association, said colleague Patrick Pullano, co-founder of Pullano and Farrow.

“He’s devoted to everything he puts his mind to. He’s devoted to his family. He’s devoted to our firm as one of my partners, to the practice of law, and the community. He puts his full effort and time into so many different things,” Pullano said.

McFadden is the person at his law firm “that people go to when they want to ask a question, or they want to have somebody listen,” Pullano said.

“He’s somebody that people turn to when they have questions, especially on difficult topics … He’s just somebody that’s approachable,” Pullano said.

A member of the board of directors for the Rochester Prep Charter School and the Urban League of Rochester, McFadden said he’s hoping that lawyers, business leaders and members of the political community, along with educators and the citizens can come together to attack issues such as poverty, violence, social, economic, and gender issues.

“I think it takes everyone to come together to sit down at the table to find fixes for those problems instead of pointing fingers at one another,” said McFadden, a Rochester native.

“I’m hoping to use my experience and my relationships with individuals in the political realm, including the mayor’s office … to individuals in the business and educational realm as well as the legal community,” he said.

Individuals are already doing this sort of work, “but they’re doing it disjointedly and separately,” he said.

He said the Bar Association is planning an event to bring members of the various groups together to share ideas and get started on finding solutions to issues.

“The problems that we have in the city and the state are big and enormous and it’s not going to be tackled just by the legal community or just by the business community or just by the political or social leaders. We need to work together doing events together to advance that cause,” he said.

The Bar Association, he said, has provided excellent opportunities for lawyers in terms of networking, career development and continuing education.

“Where I think the bar has fallen short in recent years is being that leader and creating leaders in society to address issues that are going on every day in people’s lives,” he said.

“The bar has traditionally kind of sat back silently on those premier legal issues that affect the everyday citizen. I think it’s time for the Bar Association to live up to the possibility of being a leader on those legal issues,” he said.

McFadden wanted to be an attorney since he was a young child mainly because of the debating and competitive elements of the profession.

McFadden received an associate’s degree in paralegal studies at Corning Community College and a bachelor’s degree in political science at Brockport State College.

He worked at the New York State Division of Human Rights for about 18 months, handling employment and housing discrimination complaints. He left there to become a paralegal at Brown Hutchinson LLP.

McFadden had originally planned to spend only about a year at Brown Hutchinson before heading to law school, but one of his sons was born three months prematurely with medical issues, so he put law school on hold.

Once his son was thriving, McFadden went on to receive his juris doctor from the University at Buffalo School of Law and was admitted to the bar in 2004.

While in law school McFadden continued to work for Brown Hutchinson and also for Liberty Mutual Insurance. After law school, he became an associate at Brown Hutchinson until 2007. Then he went to Harter Secrest & Emery LLP for seven years and joined Pullano & Farrow in 2014.

He still feels a passion for the job because every case is a new learning experience.

“In commercial litigation I am constantly learning new industries. It’s never stagnant, it’s never boring because I feel like I’m always in school … That’s what keeps me going, knowing that when I wake up today it’s not going to be the same old monotony, it’s going to be something new, and that keeps me going,” he said.

[email protected] / (585) 232-2035

Langston D. McFadden

Title: Partner at Pullano & Farrow PLLC

Residence: Greece

Age: 48

Education: Corning Community College, associate’s degree in paralegal studies; State University of New York, Buffalo Law School, juris doctor; SUNY Brockport, bachelor’s degree.

Career: Brown Hutchinson LLP, 2003-2007; Harter Secrest & Emery LLP, 2007-2014; Law offices of Pullano & Farrow PLLC, 2014-present

Family:

Married: Wife, Shaleeya McFadden; daughter Sydney, 13; three sons, Morgan, 16, Langston Jr. and Tylen, both 25.

Activities: Golf, assistant varsity boys’ basketball coach at Greece Athena High School.

Community service: Rochester Prep Charter School Board of Directors (president in 2023); Urban League of Rochester Board of Directors; member of Gamma Iota Boule Foundation.

Quote: “I think it takes everyone to come together to sit down at the table to find fixes for those problems instead of pointing fingers at one another.”