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One of the world’s largest bar associations has conferred its Honourary Membership on Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the deposed chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court…  “This is a very proud moment for our association,” Ms. Hynes told Chaudhry as a large gathering of lawyers and other guests gave him a standing ovation.

Associated Press of Pakistan
November 18th, 2008

The New York City Bar Association released its evaluations for judicial candidates running in the Nov. 4 elections in all five boroughs and there are two of particular note.

The Bar, which only offers two ratings – “approved” and “not approved” – did not approve Atanasio “by reason of the candidate’s failure to affirmatively demonstrate that he possesses the requisite qualifications for the court for which he is a candidate.”


NY Daily News
October 30th, 2008

The Supreme Court Historical Society and the Historical society of the courts of the State of New York presented “Ladies of Legend: The First Generation of American Women Attorneys,” a lecture by political scientist and author Jill Norgren on Monday at the New York City Bar Association.  On hand for the event, from left are city bar president Patricia Hynes, a senior counsel at Allen & Overy; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who introduced the speaker; and Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, who opened the program, which was attended by some 425 people.

New York Law Journal
October 29th, 2008

The Lawyers’ Foreclosure Intervention Network (LFIN), the brainchild of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and sponsored jointly with the New York City Bar Justice Center, is a volunteer program for attorneys to represent the most desperate homeowners facing foreclosure. 

Along with the hundreds of lawyers who have volunteered for the program, I attended the mandatory two-day, eight-hour training session on October 21st and 22nd.  Many more lawyers showed up on a “walk-in” basis.  The room was so crowded that there were lawyers sitting on the floor.


The Huffington Post
October 24th, 2008

Lynn M. Kelly, the executive director of the City Bar Justice Center, a pro bono arm of the New York City Bar Association, said the city’s Lawyers’ Foreclosure Intervention Network (which her center co-sponsors) is thriving in terms of interest among small firms and solo practitioners.  “We have all these volunteers,” she said.  However, “we’re hopeful that more people will come forward from the [large] firms, because they have a lot of resources and a lot of muscle.”

American Banker
October 20th, 2008

More opposition emerged on Tuesday afternoon to a plan by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and members of the City Council to rescind term limits by legislation and allow the mayor to run for a third term. The 23,000-member New York City Bar said the matter should be put before the voter, while a state senator said he would introduce a bill in Albany to require such a vote.

The bar association issued a strongly worded statement:

“It is critically important that voters have confidence that when they vote on a matter, it counts.  Taking the decision on a change in term limits away from the voters who have twice voted on them can only serve to engender cynicism regarding the political process, derogate the referendum process and potentially discourage voter participation in the future.”



Thomas C. Baxter, general counsel and executive vice president for the legal group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, announced that the New York Fed would cosponsor a pilot program to provide borrowers with limited pro bono representation for mortgage counseling, negotiation, and bankruptcy filings.  Administered by the City Bar Justice Center of the New York City Bar Association, the proposed citywide Lawyers’ Foreclosure Intervention Network (LFIN) would help homeowners at all income levels.

Lynn Kelly, executive director of the City Bar Justice Center, says that since June about six cases a week have been coming to LFIN.  “We’ve already had 27 foreclosure cases,” she says, “and all involved litigation.”



Addys Lamb, a Manhattan postal employee, is trying to hold onto his two-bedroom at 300 West 135th Street…He has also sought help from the New York City Bar Association’s Lawyer’s Foreclosure Intervention Network. His lawyer, Diego Velazquez, was able to delay a hearing on the foreclosure last week and is in negotiations with Mr. Lamb’s lender.

The New York Times
September 7th, 2008

In April, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s standing Committee on Professional and Judicial Ethics issued an informal opinion regarding homeowner representation by firms that represent financial institutions…The bar found there was a potential for a conflict of interest, but that it could be handled either by referral or waiver…The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the City Bar Justice Center are sponsoring a pro bono legal services effort called the Lawyers’ Foreclosure Intervention Network that pairs homeowners at risk of foreclosure with attorneys and certified law students.

Aba Journal
September 2008

A trio of bar groups yesterday announced the formation of the Bar Association Foreclosure Network of New York City, a cooperative pro bono effort by lawyers in three boroughs…The network is an outgrowth of a city bar project in May in conjunction with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in which some 125 lawyers were recruited to counsel New Yorkers facing loss of their homes due to the subprime mortgage crisis.

New York Law Journal
August 20th, 2008

As part of its push to legalize gay marriage in New York State, the Pride Agenda joined with the New York City Bar Association to mine state and local law books and find privileges reserved for married couples, and came up with 1,324 items.

The New York Times
August 2nd, 2008

Eastern District Judge Jack B. Weinstein reads the inscription on one of the New York City Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Awards for Capital Representation at a ceremony Monday at the bar group’s headquarters. More than 200 attorneys and some 30 law firms that have provided significant assistance in capital cases were honored with the awards, which were first given in 1998. This year marks only the second time the honors were given. Judge Weinstein gave the evening’s keynote address.

The New York Law Journal
July 18th, 2008

US District Court Judge and longtime Brooklynite Jack Weinstein was presented with the Thurgood Marshall Award, which is named after the iconic judge best known for his victory in the monumental school-segregation case, Brown v. Board of Education.
            The Thurgood Marshall award ceremony was held at the New York City Bar Association on 44th Street in Manhattan. Approximately 200 people attended the event, filling the landmark meeting hall.
The ceremony was held in honor of Judge Weinstein, who has dedicated his life and career to promoting and practicing the importance of free-thinking and independence in the United States judicial system.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle
July 18th, 2008

The Leader of the Lawyers’ Revolt in Pakistan last year that challenged President Musharraf’s power, Aitzaz Ahsan, criticized the Bush administration for not speaking out against Mr. Musharraf’s stance toward the judiciary in Pakistan.
            Last November, Mr. Musharraf fired the 17-member Supreme Court of Pakistan, putting some members, including its chief justice, under house arrest. Speaking at the New York City Bar Association, Mr. Ahsan said there was “not a word or whimper of concern” from America about the school-age children of the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who were also imprisoned at home behind barbed wire.
            In his speech, Mr. Ahsan said the security of an independent judiciary in Pakistan was an important bulwark against “Talibanization” there. A failure of the civil justice system in Pakistan, Mr. Ahsan warned, could turn people toward extremists willing to provide “rough justice.”

The New York Sun
July 2nd, 2008


The Editor of the Metropolitan Corporate Counsel interviews Patricia M. Hynes, newly elected President of the New York City Bar Association and Senior Counsel at Allen & Overy LLP about her record of public service and her hopes for the Bar under her leadership.
            A major professional milestone for Ms. Hynes is her service as an Assistant US Attorney in the United State’s Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan from 1967 to 1982. “Working in a prosecutor’s office whose clients were the United States government and its agencies and doing both civil cases and criminal prosecutions was a wonderful experience professionally,” she says.
            During her presidency, Ms. Hynes hopes to “promote access to justice in keeping with the long history of the Bar Association” by “enlarging upon pro bono activities of the City Bar Justice Center and also by supporting the funding efforts for the betterment of the justice system.”

The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel
July 2008


Following on the heels of Gov. David Paterson’s order for state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages, some New York couples are rushing to head down the aisle in California, where they can legally wed.
            “Same-sex couples have realized a very important advance in their legal status as married couples in New York,” said Allen A. Drexel, a family law attorney and a co-chairperson of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Rights Committee of the New York City Bar Association.
            Drexel co-edited “1,324 Reasons for Marriage Equality”, a New York City Bar Association report that is cited in the governor’s executive order. The bar report identifies more than 1,000 state policies and regulations that could change under the agency-spanning directive.

The Villager
June 27th, 2008

The National Law Journal named Preeta D. Bansal as one of the fifty most influential minority lawyers in America on May 26th. Bansal is a member of the National Advisory Council of the North American South Asian Bar Association (NASABA).
            Bansal heads the appellate litigation practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in New York. She recently won one of the largest constitutional takings cases at the United States Appeals Court for the Second Circuit, and currently serves as a policy advisor to Senator Barack Obama. She also serves on the board of numerous public service and governmental organizations, including the National Women’s Law Center, New York City Campaign Finance Board, and the New York City Bar Justice Center.

India Journal
June 26th, 2008

The Lawyers’ Orchestra of the New York City Bar Association, founded in 1996 by lawyer and oboist David Greenwald, played its last concert on June 21st at Fordham University. The orchestra has performed three major concerts a year, sponsored monthly Friday evening chamber music performances at the City Bar, and even dropped its hourly fees to give free concerts to residents at nursing homes and hospitals around the city.
            Given the pressure cooker of its members’ work day, the orchestra has also been a creative outlet for lawyers happy to trade their legal briefs for Bach, memoranda for Mozart.

The Daily News
June 21st, 2008

The New York Civil Liberties Union has won a round in its two-year battle to gain access to an electronic stop-and-frisk database that it contends will shed light on alleged racial profiling tactics employed by the New York Police Department.

In an amicus brief on behalf of the NYCLU, the New York City Bar Association wrote in January that “the Rand Report raises more issues than it resolves and should serve as the beginning, not the end, of the process for reviewing the NYPD’s methods relating to investigatory detention.”
New York Law Journal
June 2nd, 2008

Patricia M. Hynes, who was set last night to become the 63rd president of the New York City Bar Association, brings to her new post a long commitment to public service.
She has served on numerous boards and commissions over the past two decades. With respect to judicial nominations alone, she has served on committees that screen candidates for mayoral appointments in New York City; federal appointments throughout the nation, including the U.S. Supreme Court, and magistrate judges in the Southern District.

New York Law Journal
May 29, 2008


The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the City Bar Justice Center are joining forces to help New Yorkers in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure.
The two organizations today announced the formation of the Lawyers’ Foreclosure Intervention Network, a pro bono pilot program that will marshal the resources of the city’s legal community to assist residents facing foreclosure.

Crain’s New York Business
May 27, 2008


“[J]udges haven’t received raises in nearly a decade, while the cost of living has risen at least 30 percent,” said Kamins, the president of the New York City bar association and former president of the Kings County Criminal Bar Association. “[O]n the day a law school graduate is admitted to the bar and joins a large firm, that ... person makes a salary in excess of what is made by the chief judge of the state.”

May 1, 2008
Brooklyn Daily Eagle


About 700 lawyers rallied Tuesday afternoon in front of New York Supreme Court in Manhattan to show support for lawyers and judges in Pakistan battling for the restoration of the rule of law.
Addressing the throng that poured down the courthouse steps and spilled onto the sidewalk, Barry Kamins, president of the New York City Bar Association, said the rally was called "to embolden" the Pakistani lawyers and judges who have been "physically manning barricades and trying to face down an entire army."

New York Law Journal
November 14, 2007


Lawyers in Pakistan have found an ally in their fight for the restoration of the judiciary - the New York City and State Bar Associations - among the largest, oldest and most prestigious associations of lawyers in the United States.
They are extremely busy and charge by the hour but hundreds of lawyers from law firms across Manhattan took time out to gather on the steps of the New York County Courthouse to protest the arrest and detention of thousands of lawyers and judges under emergency rule in Pakistan.

New Delhi Television
November 14, 2007


Today, the New York City Bar presented a letter to Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, urging him to reverse his decision to fire justices of the Supreme Court, impose emergency rule, crack down on protesters and detain lawyers and other activists without charges.

New York Times
November 7, 2007


The New York City Bar Association is pushing the city council to ease a police code that defines any gathering of 50 or more people as a "parade" requiring a permit from the police department.
"The police will inevitably engage in a wide degree of selective and discretionary enforcement, which has the very real potential for becoming a means for suppressing particular points of view," the group's president, Barry Kamins, warned in the letter to Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

New York Sun
October 19, 2007


To the Editor:

Members of the bar were appalled by the suggestion of merit pay for judges based upon holdings in cases, in two recent Sun editorials ["Judge Sues for a Raise," April 11, 2008, and "Overpaid Judges," May 2, 2008].
One of the oldest, most established principles in American law is the doctrine of judicial independence. That is, judges ought to decide cases free from the interference of politics and public opinion, and without worry of incurring sanctions for their decisions.
Merit pay for judges depending on the popularity of their decisions would be the beginning of the end of judicial independence.
As former chief justice Earl Warren wrote, it is in the public's interest "that the judges should be at liberty to exercise their functions with independence and without fear of consequences."
The New York City Bar Association supports judicial pay increases on the premise that fair salaries are necessary to attract and retain a qualified and dedicated judiciary. Judicial independence is not for sale.

Barry Kamins, President
New York City Bar Association
The New York Sun
May 8, 2008


The American Bar Assn. voted Monday to urge Congress to override a Bush administration order authorizing the CIA to use interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, and sensory and sleep deprivation...
The first resolution dealt with an executive order the Bush administration adopted last month allowing the CIA to use "enhanced" methods of questioning. Barbara Berger Opotowsky, executive director of the New York City Bar Assn., said the order was clearly "inconsistent with U.S. obligations" under Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, which requires humane treatment of detainees.
"The use of official cruelty has repeatedly been shown to be far from the best means of extracting truthful information," said Opotowsky, who proposed the resolution. She noted that a U.S. Army field manual on intelligence interrogations issued last September barred the controversial interrogation techniques that will be available to the CIA.
"Unfortunately, the executive order sets a lower standard for the CIA," she said.

The Los Angeles Times
August 14, 2007


[The U.S. Department of Justice] accuses lawyers of provoking unrest among the detainees and threatening camp security.Barry M. Kamins, the bar group’s president, deemed it an unjust insult that could not be taken lying down. His is one of the oldest and largest associations of lawyers in the country, with more than 23,000 members...
"Guantanamo has developed into a symbol of abuse, mistreatment and injustice in the eyes of the entire world," Mr. Kamins said. "The practices tolerated there have done incalculable damage to the reputation of the United States as an advocate of fundamental justice and the rule of law."

The New York Times
May 11, 2007


Our strongly held view is that the best way to select justices–and all judges–is through a commission–based appointment system. We believe this provides the highest–quality judiciary. We recognize that this change would require a constitutional amendment, and at least in the interim the court decision must be addressed. We would much prefer a reformed judicial convention system to open primaries, which have the worst fund–raising implications.

Barry Kamins, President
New York City Bar Association
Crain's New York Business
January 22, 2007


The NYPD wants to require a parade permit for groups of 30 or more vehicles or bicyclists and make a group of 10 pedestrians or bicyclists on the streets subject to arrest if anyone breaks traffic laws...
Critics say it’s the role of the NYPD to enforce the law and not to create it and many are calling on the City Council to step in.
"We believe this approach is ill–conceived and fundamentally wrong," said Peter Barbur of the New York City Bar Association.

NY1 News
November 27, 2006


India should limit the use of its tough anti–terrorism laws and push ahead with long–overdue police and criminal justice reforms, a New York–based lawyers’ group said Tuesday.
However, the report by the Committee on International Human Rights of the New York City Bar Association hailed the Indian government for its restraint in the wake of July train bombings in Mumbai that killed over 200 people.
"Respect for human rights when combating terrorism is a strategic imperative," said Anil Kalhan of the committee’s India project...
The 135–page report, based on a two–week visit to India in 2005 by several of the association’s members, recommended greater transparency in decision–making to ensure the uniform application of laws across the country.

Associated Press
September 25, 2006


Attorney general candidate Andrew Cuomo will face his Democratic rivals in another debate before their Sept. 12 primary...
"He is running to be the state’s top law enforcement officer and it is an invitation that he wouldn’t pass up," Cuomo spokeswoman Wendy Katz said of the Bar Association debate.
The Bar Association debate is being co–sponsored by The New York Law Journal. Bar Association President Barry Kamins and Law Journal Editor in Chief Kris Fischer will moderate.

The Journal News
September 1, 2006


Barry Kamins is New York’s latest legatee and legend...The fact that he’s become the 62nd president of a prestigious organization whose members include 23,000 of the city’s 75,000 lawyers isn’t what’s made him a legend. Rather, it’s the fact that in the 136–year history of the bar association — the largest of any city in America — there has never been a president from outside Manhattan until Mr. Kamins came along...

The New York Sun
July 12, 2006


Last month, the New York City Bar published a policy paper stating that sex offender civil commitment laws could easily be abused and that "misplaced fears" could keep sex offenders incarcerated for years after their sentence and could represent a threat to civil liberties.

The New York Times
February 6, 2006


The leader of a major lawyers group yesterday called for a system of merit selection in picking State Supreme Court judges in the wake of a federal court ruling last week which scrapped the way the jurists are elected.
Bettina Plevan, president of the New York City Bar Association, said in a prepared statement that Friday’s ruling by Brooklyn federal Judge John Gleeson was an “excellent” chance to reform judicial selection.
But she said that Gleeson’s ruling requiring judicial candidates to run in primary elections had serious problems.
“Forcing all Supreme Court candidates into an election where they must raise funds from lawyers who would appear before them and address issues likely to come before them if elected, all while still needing to curry favor with political leaders, is not the long- term solution,” said Plevan.

Newsday
January 31, 2006


Last week’s Federal Court ruling, which struck down as unconstitutional New York’s decades-old system of electing state Supreme Court justices, marked the culmination of more than a century of calls to break the stranglehold of party bosses over our state courts. Reformers should take a well-deserved bow – and then start running for office.There may never be a better chance than right now to put a crop of honest, independent men and women on the bench. Federal Judge John Gleeson has ordered open party primaries for Supreme Court, the state’s general trial court. Gleeson also abolished judicial conventions, which were nothing more than rubber stamps on the patronage picks of county bosses …
For New York, that’s revolutionary. In 1847, our state became the second (after Mississippi) to choose judges by popular vote – but the elections quickly became bogged down in political corruption. By 1870, according to a history of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, “the decline of quality on the bench under the elective system and the necessity for reversing this trend had been among the chief reasons for founding the Association.”

Daily News
January 31, 2006


For the first time in many years, the New York City Bar Association looks ahead to the 2006 legislative session with optimism, albeit a cautious one. From Assembly rules reform, to budget, public authorities and lobbying reform in 2005, change toward a better government is a real possibility … Whether this is a sign of a new Albany where productivity and reform rule the day, or just a lucky break fueled by last year’s intense public pressure to fix Albany, remains to be seen [said Jayne Bigelsen, director of Communications and Public Affairs at the New York City Bar Association].

New York Law Journal
January 9, 2006


The City Bar Justice Center received the Distinguished Public Service Award from the American Immigration Law Foundation at the group’s Annual Achievement Awards Ceremony at the Marriott Marquis on Thursday.

New York Law Journal
December 14, 2005


Thirty of the 55 large Manhattan law firms asked by the New York City Bar Association to endorse its aspirational “Statement of Pro Bono Principles” did so yesterday. Included in the statement is a pledge that signatory firms perform 50 or more hours per lawyer per year. A “substantial majority” of those hours should be in the cause of civil legal help for the poor – or about 30 hours, said Bettina B. Plevan, city bar president.

New York Law Journal
November 30, 2005


Fresh from his big win on Tuesday, Mayor Bloomberg is launching a new push aimed at changing the way the city elects most judges – a secretive process largely controlled by party bosses and long riddled by scandal … It’s not the first time Bloomberg has called for changing the city’s arcane method of electing judges. He first did so in May 2003 in a speech before the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and more recently during his campaign.

Daily News
November 13, 2005


As Scott Horton [Chair, International Law Committee, New York City Bar Association] reminded us on Amy Goodman’s syndicated program, Democracy Now!, the vice president, back in 2002, “was making the rounds of the talk shows and talking about the need to use ‘the dark arts.’ He was clearly advocating torture, and he was advocating it within the CIA and later the Defense Department.”

Nat Hentoff
The Village Voice
November 11, 2005


As the Brooklyn district attorney looks into whether judges have paid to get seats on the bench, nine judicial candidates in Brooklyn have been refused the coveted seal of approval from the New York City Bar Association … The bar association gives only “approved” and “not approved” designations after candidates submit questionnaires, writing samples, references, and a full record of their job history. In addition, a special committee conducts interviews with the would-be judges.

The New York Sun
November 1, 2005


Long before contemporary New York crimebusters-cum-politicians such as Rudolph Giuliani and Elliot Spitzer, there was a mustachioed young prosecutor who single-handedly drained the swamp of hack lawyers and Tammany Hall hustlers that constituted the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office from the late 1800s until the mid-1930s.
He was Thomas E. Dewey.
Now comes a medal in his name that will be awarded to a handful of assistant district attorneys who exemplify the ideals and accomplishments of the man …
Between now and Nov. 29, when five Dewey Medals will be awarded – one per borough – a special committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York is reviewing the secret nominations of 15 candidates, three each from the five district attorney’s offices.
The award is the brainchild of Daniel R. Alonso, chairman of the city bar’s Criminal Advocacy Committee and outgoing chief of the Criminal Division of the Eastern District U.S. Attorney’s Office.

New York Law Journal
September 30, 2005


After 135 years, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York is sprucing up its public identity to make it more contemporary and less prone to mangling in the popular press. [Some of the most common misidentifications were as “The New York State Bar” or the “New York Bar.”]
Though it will retain its formal name, the association started in June to identify itself in its public communications as the “New York City Bar,” said Barbara Berger Opotowsky, executive director of the 23,000-member group …
Also, Ms. Opotowsky said, the city bar’s public name has been changed in tandem with that of its fund-raising arm, the City Bar Fund, [now known as the City Bar Justice Center] to cement the connection between the two organizations in the public’s mind.

New York Law Journal
September 23, 2005


Ruth Bader Ginsburg told an audience Wednesday that she doesn’t like the idea of being the only female justice on the Supreme Court. But in choosing to fill one of the two open positions on the court, “any woman will not do,” she said.
There are “some women who might be appointed who would not advance human rights or women’s rights,” Ginsburg told those gathered at the New York City Bar Association … “I have a list of highly qualified women, but the president has not consulted me,” she added during a brief interview.

Associated Press
September 21, 2005


When friends and colleagues gathered three years ago at a memorial service for Cyrus R. Vance … cabinet secretary under three U.S. presidents … it seemed logical to all that he should become the namesake of one of the most ambitious and far-reaching agendas ever undertaken by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York … the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice – an opportunity for button-down New York lawyers at white shoe firms to engage in social justice and help promote legal reform in emerging democracies.

New York Law Journal
August 12, 2005


A provision of the USA Patriot Act that allows the FBI to collect personal information from institutions without a warrant is unconstitutional, the New York City Bar said yesterday in an amicus brief filed in the Manhattan U.S. Court of Appeals. The association says “National Security Letters” that demand customer information from Internet providers, universities and libraries for terror investigations lack proper judicial oversight.

amNewYork
August 5, 2005


At the Legal Referral Service run by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, director Allen Charne says he and his staff get 500 phone calls a day from people looking for a lawyer … His staff screens each lawyer before adding the lawyer to its referral list for a given legal specialty. Charne requires lawyers to submit proof of experience in their areas of law, submit work samples and be questioned by a panel of judges and lawyers. Once his staff approves a lawyer for the referral panel, they check the lawyer’s legal standing annually and ask each referred client to complete a satisfaction survey.

New York Magazine
August 1, 2005


Large law firms are generally not diverse places. Even though law schools for years have produced graduates of increasingly varied backgrounds, these young lawyers seem not to stay long enough to rise through the ranks of senior associates and eventually become partners.
Partners at large firms loudly lament the situation and point out the one or two African-American partners they have, or the few Asian-Americans, or maybe even a few Hispanic-Americans. But the numbers tell the story: According to the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, for example, which released results of a voluntary survey of diversity at 82 New York-area law offices earlier this year, 4.7 percent of partners are members of minority groups, even though 21.1 percent of associates are.

The New York Times
July 22, 2005


A major statistical report profiling the demographics of the metropolitan legal community will be presented to 82 participating firms on Monday during the second annual diversity symposium of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York … That so many New York law firms were signatories to the city bar study – 82 of 86 invited to participate – was evidence of a commitment to dramatic change, according to Edwin Bowman, diversity manager at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. The 82 law firms employed 16,936 attorneys in 2004. “I’ve never seen a survey with that high a response rate,” said Mr. Bowman. “People are interested and taking it seriously, and they want to be a part of anything that seems productive and constructive.”

New York Law Journal
June 3, 2005


On September 17, 1987, I was privileged to be in the audience at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York when Justice William Brennan, who had become the conscience of the Bill of Rights on the high court, gave the 42nd Annual Benjamin N. Cardozo Lecture.
That lecture, still available in the archives of the Association of the Bar of this city, should be read by members of Congress and every law student and law professor in the country—as well as by every judge, from local housing and family courts to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Titled “Reason, Passion, and ‘The Progress of the Law,’ ” Brennan’s emphasis on what he called “the human reality of the judicial process” is even more vital now that the Rehnquist Supreme Court has prioritized economic rights and the rights of individual states over the rights and liberties of individual Americans throughout the country.

Nat Hentoff
The Village Voice
May 11, 2005


Several groups, including the Association of the Bar of the City of New York …, have written to Mr. Putin and the Russian prosecutor general’s office demanding that Ms. Bakhmina [a corporate attorney for the Russian oil company, Yukos] be released and put under house arrest. “It wasn’t only denial of due process” that prompted the New York City bar association to write on her behalf, said Martin S. Flaherty, chairman of the group’s committee on international human rights and a professor at Fordham Law School, in a telephone interview. “We understand she was also denied medical treatment and roughed up in prison.”

The New York Times
March 29, 2005


Eight senior officers from the Office of the Judge Advocate General – the highest military legal authority – sounded an alarm in 2003 in a series of secret meetings with the New York City Bar Association. The career military lawyers complained that the Pentagon had sidelined them because they supported Geneva Convention protections for American prisoners. Retired Rear Adm. John Hutson, judge advocate general from 1997-2000, blames the decision to ignore the Geneva Conventions for “the kind of chaos we’ve seen.”

Newsday
January 13, 2005


As a result of New York’s obsolete divorce law, families suffer, children are permanently scarred, and abusive marriages are encouraged … Fortunately, the city and state bar associations are backing legislation in Albany to change to a no-fault model. While New York State legislators are mostly known for what they do not do – get a state budget passed, control Medicaid costs, work across party lines – now they have an opportunity to agree on helping couples disagree, and divorce, with dignity.

New York Observer
December 13, 2004


Matrimonial lawyers, bar associations and judges are pushing to have the [divorce] law changed, saying it is archaic and heightens hostilities between spouses, which particularly hurts children. Both the New York State Bar Association and the city bar are backing a legislative change in Albany to add no-fault grounds, and several powerful legislators appear to be receptive. “Even Chile, one of the most Catholic countries in the world, has no-fault divorce now,” said Harold A. Mayerson, a Manhattan divorce lawyer and chairman of the committee on matrimonial law at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

The New York Times
November 30, 2004


Many legal immigrants take plea settlements without realizing accepting certain sentences for even seemingly minor crimes could get them deported … The Association of the Bar of the City of New York criticized the law in a report last spring. “Without a warning, many non-citizen defendants plead guilty to lesser New York offenses unaware of these potential immigration consequences,” the report found … “The interests of justice require a warning mechanism that puts the non-citizen defendant on notice, so that he may make an informed choice as to whether, and to what, to plead guilty.”

The New York Sun
November 16, 2004


The New York Bar Association, in a statement, said current U.S. regulations enacted under the Convention Against Torture prohibit deporting any individual to a country where “more likely than not” the person will be tortured. A person can be deported only after a finding that torture is no longer likely. By contrast, the bar association said, the new bill would actually “mandate deportation of such an individual to a country even if it is certain that [he] would be tortured there.” The provision amounts to “a tacit approval of torture,” the New York Bar Association said, and “is particularly shocking in the aftermath of the recent revelations of torture by U.S. personnel in Iraq.”

Newsweek
October 6, 2004


In 2003, Rumsfeld’s apparent disregard for the requirements of the Geneva Conventions while carrying out the war on terror had led a group of senior military legal officers from the Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) to pay two surprise visits within five months to Scott Horton, who was then chairman of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on International Human Rights. “They wanted us to challenge the Bush Administration about its standards for detentions and interrogation,” Horton told me…The message was that conditions are ripe for abuse, and it’s going to occur…“They said there was an atmosphere of legal ambiguity being created as a result of a policy decision at the highest levels in the Pentagon. The JAG officers were being cut out of the policy formulation process.”

The New Yorker
May 24, 2004


A powerful law organization has joined opponents fighting the use of Liberty bonds to pay for the building of a power plant in Astoria, Queens. The New York City Bar Association sent a letter to Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday asking them to reconsider the city’s plans to give Astoria Energy up to $600 million in Liberty bonds to finance the plant.
[The letter says: “It is, in our view, contrary to the legislative intent to divert funds from a program that was earmarked to compensate for the losses experienced by the city because of the September 11th tragedy.”]

Newsday
April 28, 2004



The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, one of the nation’s most influential bar associations, issued an exceptionally valuable 153-page report on February 6, “The Indefinite Detention of ‘Enemy Combatants’: Balancing Due Process and National Security in the Context of the War on Terror.” … I hope the justices of the Supreme Court will read – and remember – it.

The Village Voice
February 27, 2004



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