Sharing Our Memories: Patricia Shevy
4.17.2026
In honor of our 150th anniversary, we asked longtime, involved members for their recollections of the New York State Bar Association.
Patricia Shevy, past chair of the Trusts and Estates Law Section, remembered how the COVID-19 pandemic changed programming.
“Back in the beginning, we had CLE programs throughout the state. So, there would be speakers from Albany for the Albany presentation. There’d be speakers from Buffalo for the Buffalo presentation.
“When 2020 hit, everything moved to Zoom pretty quickly, and I think the bar association did a great job with the quick transition, so that people were getting good, timely information in an easy format. So now most of the CLEs are done through webinar on Zoom. It’s a great way to provide the information. The downside of it is that you don’t get that collegiality. You don’t go to the meeting just to spend time with your colleagues and spend time with your friends.
“If you want to have that one-on-one or group interaction, then you need to go to a fall meeting or a spring meeting. It used to be that even if I didn’t need the CLE, I’d still go to the Albany meeting because my friends were going to be there.
“So now I think that we have to focus on ways to get us all back together face to face, not just screen to screen. So go to those fall and spring meetings.”
Do you have a special memory you want to share in honor of our 150th anniversary? Email rmelnitsky@nysba.org and your memory may be featured on our website.
