Smooth Moves 2026: Navigating Today’s Legal Job Market

AGENDA:

5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. – CLE Program

• This year’s CLE program is entitled “Navigating Today’s Legal Job Market.” Comprised of a stellar group of speakers, our panel will explore and discuss the challenges facing young lawyers in today’s job market and how to meet those challenges.

6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. – Reception & Award Ceremony

• Please join us for the 2026 Smooth Moves Diversity & Inclusion CLE and The Honorable George Bundy Smith Pioneer Award Ceremony, honoring and celebrating the Honorable Laura Taylor Swain, Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. 

The Commercial & Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association will be bestowing The Honorable George Bundy Smith Pioneer Award (the “Pioneer Award”) to the Honorable Laura Taylor Swain, Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Section presents the Pioneer Award annually to an attorney or jurist whose career accomplishments exemplify the high standards set by the Honorable George Bundy Smith, the late judge of the New York State Court of Appeals. The award, which celebrates the hallmarks of Judge Smith’s career — legal excellence, community commitment and mentoring — was established in 2007 in recognition of his work as a Freedom Rider during the Civil Rights Movement, and his unwavering commitment to social justice during his 30 years of public service as a judge.

Judge Swain is a true trail blazer and legal pioneer who exemplifies Judge Bundy Smith’s commitment to justice, public service, and community.   Upon graduating from Harvard Law School, Judge Swain clerked for Chief Judge Constance Baker Motley on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1982 to 1983. Swain then worked as an associate and, later, counsel with the New York office of the international law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where she focused on ERISA, employee benefits, executive compensation and employment law. In 1996, Judge Swain was appointed as a judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York. In 1998, she became a founding board member of the Coalition for Consumer Bankruptcy Debtor Education, a non-profit organization. In 2000, Judge Swain was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as a U.S. District Judge, and in 2021 assumed the role of Chief Judge of that court.  In 2017, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts appointed Judge Swain to preside over the financial restructuring proceedings for  Puerto Rico and its instrumentalities under Title III of the federal PROMESA statute.

Judge Swain has received numerous awards throughout her legal career, including the New York County Lawyers Association’s Edward Weinfeld Award in 2019, the Trailblazer Award from the Metropolitan Black Bar Association in 2000, the Servant of Justice Award from the Guild of St. Ives of the Episcopal Diocese of New York in 2008, and the Cecelia H. Goetz Award from the New York Institute of Credit in 2016, the Lawrence P. King Award from the Commercial Law League of America in 2021, and the Jane Bolin Award from the Judicial Friends in 2022..  She has served as the Donahue Lecturer at Suffolk University Law School and as an Adjunct Professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University.   She holds honorary law degrees from Suffolk University (2008) and Fordham University (2022). Judge Swain also served on the New York State Board of Law Examiners from 1986 to 1996, making her the first woman, and the first person of color, to serve in that capacity.

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