Grace Davey Moran, a pioneering Nassau County attorney who became the first woman to serve as chief counsel to the Grievance Committee for the 10th Judicial District and the first female president of the Nassau County Bar Association, died on Aug. 10. She was 89.
A Rockville Centre resident for 64 years, Moran built a distinguished legal career while raising seven children.
In 2017, the Nassau County Bar Association awarded her its Distinguished Service Medallion, the association’s highest honor. Previous recipients included Presidents Herbert Hoover and Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. Supreme Court justices and New York governors.
Moran was born on July 22, 1937, the oldest of eight children of Joseph and Mary Davey. She grew up in Belle Harbor, Queens, and graduated from Our Lady of Wisdom Academy and Fordham University. She married Eugene “Gene” Moran in 1958, and they moved to Rockville Centre in 1962.
She enrolled in St. John’s University School of Law in 1975 and graduated three years later, in 1978, at age 40. She was admitted to the New York State Bar that year, a milestone she credited in part to the support of Gene, an accomplished attorney.
At her Aug. 14 funeral Mass at St. Agnes Cathedral, her son Colin Moran spoke of her determination.
“The woman who was once told she was taking the seat of a man was suddenly prominent in many professional photos alongside mostly men,” he said during his eulogy.
Moran began her legal career in public service with the Grievance Committee for the 10th Judicial District, investigating and prosecuting complaints against attorneys. She became the committee’s first female chief counsel in 1999.
Bob Guido, who met Moran when he joined the committee in 1981, worked with her for 20 years, first as a colleague and later as her deputy. He said Moran brought compassion and common sense to a difficult area.
“She was a really, really good lawyer,” Guido said. “She brought so much worldly and common sense in what you were dealing with that it was just refreshing to see.”
Moran became the first female president of the Nassau County Bar Association in 1994, focusing on modernizing the practice of law during her tenure.
“I don't think she would think of herself as a trailblazer,” Guido said. “She carried forward what the trailblazers started, and she brought it to fulfillment and was proud to do that.”
After retiring from the Grievance Committee in 2002, Moran joined Moran Karamouzis LLP, her daughter’s law firm, where she focused on professional responsibility and ethics.
“She was one of Long Island's best-known attorneys,” her daughter, Siobhan Moran said. “She ended up working on the other side of the street, so to speak. Now, she was defending lawyers, but she was defending them in a way that she thought they needed representation.”
Despite her professional accomplishments, Moran remained closely involved in the lives of her 22 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
“She was a pioneer and a powerhouse in the legal profession, but always put her immediate and extended family first,” Colin Moran said.
Her son Greg Moran remembered her compassion and instinct to help others.
“She had an ability to walk into a room of 30 people and somehow sense which person was in the most pain or was in the most distress and be able to figure out how to help that person,” he said.
Moran’s commitment to service extended beyond law. She was active in St. Agnes Parish, particularly its outreach program, and served as a director of Winthrop and Mount Sinai South Nassau hospitals. She also was involved with the Jennie E. Hewitt Elementary School PTA, the Rockville Centre Council of PTAs, CONFIDE and the Cerebral Palsy Association, and in recent years volunteered at the De La Salle School in Freeport.
Siobhan Moran described her mother as a lifelong volunteer.
“My mother was a volunteer before they even knew what that word was,” she said. “I don't think there was a day that that woman was not volunteering somewhere, somehow.”
Rockville Centre Mayor Francis X. Murray remembered Moran as a kind presence in the community. As a young boy, he first knew her when he earned extra money waxing kitchen floors.
“She was one of my customers, and I will always remember her as an exceptionally kind and gracious woman,” Murray said. “Her warmth and gentle nature made a lasting impression on me, even at a young age.”
For Guido, Moran’s most lasting legacy was personal.
“She was a totally selfless and loyal friend,” he said. “She was a true friend.”
He said Moran made people feel valued, adding, “When you got her attention, she made you feel like you were the most special person in the room.”
Delia Karamouzis, Moran’s granddaughter and a lawyer herself, said her grandmother’s Catholic faith was central to her life.
“It was the fabric of her life,” she said.
Moran was predeceased by her parents, Joseph and Mary Davey; her husband, Eugene; her son, James; and her sister, Mary Noel Botting. She is survived by her children Colin, Siobhan, Greg, Mark, Brian, and Matthew.
Moran was cremated, with plans for her family to hold a burial service next month to inter some of her ashes with Gene and James. In accordance with her wishes, some of her ashes will also be placed with her parents, while others will be scattered in the Atlantic Ocean, reflecting her lifelong love of the beach.
