New Commercial and Federal Litigation Chair Helene Hechtkopf Focuses on Programming
5.29.2025
For Helene Hechtkopf, the incoming chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Commercial and Federal Litigation Section, programming comes first.
“It’s very easy to attend things from your office, but you miss out on all the interpersonal connections,” she said. “You still get the education. But you don’t get all the interpersonal stuff that you used to get. So to make it worthwhile for people to actually leave their offices and come to meetings and CLEs and all sorts of other programs, it shouldn’t feel like a chore. It should feel like something you want to do. And I think that’s our goal: to make sure people actually get enough out of it that they want to do it.”
Hechtkopf explained that the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section hosts several programs in which attorneys get to meet justices and build relationships with them.
“I want to make sure that the programs we’re putting on – that the judiciary finds it useful, and also that our members find it useful,” she said. “Just to put on programs that people find useful and interesting and educational.”
Hechtkopf is a litigation partner at Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney, with a practice focused on employment, commercial and construction litigation. Her clients include the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Metro-North Railroad. She has been at her firm for 16 years.
“I had a senior partner when I was a very junior associate who told me, ‘Don’t just join a bar association, show up and do things,’” she said. “And so I did, and the section he told me to join was [Commercial and Federal Litigation.] So I joined that section.”
