NYSBA Leadership
Officers
Kathleen Marie Sweet, President
Kathleen Marie Sweet’s practice includes the defense of medical malpractice actions and legal malpractice actions. She also represents physicians and other health care professionals subject to discipline at the institutional level and with respect to state and federal investigations and actions. A former confidential law clerk to New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, Fourth Department, she…
Read MoreKathleen Marie Sweet’s practice includes the defense of medical malpractice actions and legal malpractice actions. She also represents physicians and other health care professionals subject to discipline at the institutional level and with respect to state and federal investigations and actions. A former confidential law clerk to New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, Fourth Department, she also handles appeals. She is a certified mediator for the United States District Court for the Western District of New York.
Sweet has also held leadership positions within other bar associations and is a past president of the Bar Association of Erie County. She has also served in the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates. She was a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Task Force on Medical Aid in Dying and on the Task Force on Advancing Diversity.
In 2016 Sweet was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as a United States District Court Judge. Her nomination was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. As was the case for many nominees that year, the Senate majority declined to hold a vote on her nomination before the end of the 114th Congress.
She is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America. She served on the Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commission for the New York State Eighth Judicial District from 2014 to 2016 and has been a member of the New York State committee on character and Fitness for the Eighth Judicial District for over 10 years. She was the founding chair of the Upstate Tri-County Bar Association Commission on Judicial Appointments. In addition, Sweet served on the board of directors of the Volunteer Lawyer’s Project and she has been a volunteer ambassador for AIDS Community Services for several years.
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Taa Grays
President-Elect
Thomas J. Maroney
Secretary
Susan L. Harper
Treasurer
Domenick Napoletano, Esq.
Immediate Past President
NYSBA Officers include the President, President-Elect, Secretary, and Treasurer. The President-Elect automatically becomes President the year following election.
The control and administration of the NYSBA is vested in the House of Delegates, the decision and policy-making body of the Association. The House meets four times a year (January, April, June and November). Action taken by the House of Delegates on specific issues becomes official NYSBA policy.
NYSBA Bylaws
The Bylaws are the governing rules of the New York State Bar Association and regulate the structure of the organization, the roles of officers, membership provisions, and the workings of NYSBA sections, committees, and the House of Delegates.
Totaling thirty members, the Executive Committee has the authority to act and speak on behalf of the Association, consistent with previous action of the House of Delegates, when the House is not in session. The Executive Committee meets quarterly before meetings of the House of Delegates and at other times as necessary.
The Executive Committee is composed of the officers of the Association, together with vice-presidents from each of the thirteen judicial districts in the state (the 1st district has two vice-presidents), eight members-at-large, and the immediate past president. All officers are elected to serve one-year terms.
All members of the Executive Committee also serve in the House of Delegates.
Section Chairs represent 27 NYSBA Sections. Each Section draws its membership from lawyers or judges with common professional interests. Sections operate with their own officers, dues schedule and committees. They address professional development, improvement of laws and continuing education in a variety of substantive law fields.
Taa Grays
Taa Grays has worked on behalf of the New York State Bar Association on issues from police reform to strategic planning and corporate governance throughout the past 20 years. Those leadership roles have given her a rich background of experience that she can draw upon in her president-elect role.
She co-chaired the association’s Strategic Planning Committee, the Task Force on Racism, Social Equity and the Law, and the Task Force on Racial Injustice and Police Reform. She is a member of the Business Law, Corporate Counsel and Women in Law sections, was the vice president of the First Judicial District on the Executive Committee and chaired the New York State Conference of Bar Leaders and the Committee on Women in the Law (now the Women in Law Section).
Grays previously served as vice president and associate general counsel of information governance at MetLife Legal Affairs. As the lead of information governance, Grays was responsible for the strategic management of MetLife’s global Information Governance Program. She led a seven-person team that developed, implemented and managed the information governance strategic plan.
She started with MetLife in 2003 in the litigation section and served as the chief of staff to the general counsel from 2010 to 2015. Prior to MetLife, Grays was an assistant district attorney with the Bronx District Attorney’s Office in its rackets bureau for five-and-a-half years.
Grays was honored with the State Bar Association’s Diversity Trailblazer Award in 2008.
She was also recognized as one of 100 Leading Women Lawyers in New York by Crain’s New York Business in 2017, a Visionary Leader in Litigation by Inside Counsel in 2016, one of the Most Influential Black Lawyers in 2015 and named Ready to Rise to become a general counsel in 2013 and 2015.
Within the legal community, the New York City Bar Association recognized Grays as a Diversity Champion in 2015.
The Metropolitan Black Bar Association acknowledged her dedication and leadership to the bar in 2010 by honoring her with its inaugural Bar Leaders of the Year Award.
Grays earned her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University.
Thomas J. Maroney
Thomas J. Maroney is the secretary of the New York State Bar Association. He previously served on the NYSBA Executive Committee and in the NYSBA House of Delegates as an elected member-at-large. He is chair of the NYSBA Committee on Association Insurance Programs and a member of the Gala Sales Committee. He also serves on the NYSBA Committee to Review Judicial Nominations.
Maroney served as a member of the Task Force on Medical Aid in Dying, Working Group on Facial Recognition Technology and Access to Legal Representation, and the Emergency Task Force on Solo and Small Firm Practitioners. He also served as the NYSBA Membership Committee chair.
Maroney was a contributing author of NYSBA’s “Post-Trial Practice and Procedures”. He has lectured on civil trial practice, negotiating strategies and alternative dispute resolution. He served as chair of the NYSBA Torts, Insurance and Compensation Law Section.
He is the president of the New York City Trial Lawyers Alliance, which is dedicated to promoting professionalism and collegiality in civil trial advocacy.
Maroney is a past president of the Defense Association of New York and the Emerald Association of Long Island. He served on the board of directors of the Defense Research Institute. He serves on the boards of the New York Claim Association and the St. John’s University School of Law Alumni Association.
He is a member of the New York County Lawyers, Bronx Bar and Nassau County Bar associations. A graduate of Siena College and St. John’s University School of Law, Maroney has dedicated his practice to high exposure, catastrophic and complex civil defense litigation. He has been a member of the First Department Character and Fitness Committee since 1998.
Maroney is the recipient of the DRI Outstanding State Representative Award, DRI Exceptional Performance Award, New York State Bar Association Section Diversity Challenge Champion Award as chair of the TICL Section, the New York City Brehon Law Society Outstanding Attorney Award, the NYSBA TICL Section Leach Memorial Award and the Institute of Jewish Humanities Defense Lawyer of the Year Award.
The Defense Association of New York presented the James S. Conway Award to Maroney in recognition of his lifetime dedication to the ideals of diversity, equality, professionalism, and dignity for all who seek justice through our courts.
Susan L. Harper
Susan L. Harper began her term as treasurer of the New York State Bar Association on June 1, 2023.
Harper is the founding chair of the association’s Women in Law Section and served as chair of the Committee on Women in the Law, where she successfully spearheaded initiatives and legislation to advance issues pertaining to women in the legal profession and advocated for the fair and equitable treatment of all women under the law.
Harper serves on the association’s Executive Committee, Finance Committee, Investment Committee, and Audit Committee, and is the Executive Committee liaison to the Women in Law Section, the Committee on Attorney Well-Being, and the Lawyer Assistance Committee. She served as chair of the association’s Attorney-Client Relations Working Group on the Task Force on the Post-Pandemic Future of the Profession and was a member of NYSBA’s Strategic Planning Committee, the Task Force on Free Expression in the Digital Age, the Working Group on Judiciary Law Section 470, and chair of the Women in Law Section’s Centennial Suffrage Commemoration initiative.
Harper is a member of NYSBA’s Corporate Counsel, Elder Law and Special Needs (and its legislative subcommittee), Commercial and Federal Litigation, and Business Law sections. Prior to becoming an officer, she presented to the House of Delegates on six occasions to advance paid leave, the Equal Rights Amendment, and the creation of the Women in Law Section.
Harper has been admitted to the New York and New Jersey bars. She focuses her practice on business advisory, financial services, senior fraud and financial exploitation prevention, legislation, policy development, and not for profit law. She also works with organizations and individuals to advance and amplify issues, ideas, causes, and services through advocacy, strategy, and communications.
She has represented major broker-dealers, insurance companies and clearing firms and their employees on matters before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission and state and federal courts in connection with customer, industry, and employment disputes. She recently served as a managing director of a nationally recognized financial services expert witness and consulting firm.
Harper is a member of the New York County Lawyers Association board of directors and its nominating committee, co-chairs the Securities and Exchanges Committee, and is past chair of the Women’s Rights Committee.
She served as president and chair of the board and Executive Committee of the Financial Women’s Association of New York and the FWA of the New York Educational Fund. She also served as its board restructuring chair and general counsel for several years and was the organization’s liaison to the United States military for over a decade.
Harper earned her law degree from New York Law School and her bachelor’s degree in business management from Simmons College in Boston.
She is a recipient of Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law’s Outstanding Women in Law award and has been honored as a Public Sector Woman of the Year by the Financial Women’s Association of New York.
Domenick Napoletano, Esq.
Domenick Napoletano is a practitioner focusing on complex commercial litigation and appellate work while maintaining a busy general practice. Several of his cases have appeared in published decisions, many involving real property and tenancy and occupancy issues. He has spearheaded state and federal class action lawsuits, including notably against the New York City Department of Finance for its imposition of “vault taxes.” He is admitted in the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as the Southern and Eastern District of New York and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He has been a member of the New York State Bar Association since 1981.
Napoletano’s involvement in NYSBA’s activities are numerous and include being the past chair of the General Practice Section and co-chair of the Committee on Civil Practice Law and Rules. He previously co-chaired the Emergency Task Force for Solo and Small Firm Practitioners. He has served on many association committees, including Finance, Bar Leaders of New York State, Animals in the Law, the Task Force on the Evaluation of Candidates for Election to Judicial Office, the Task Force on Mass Shootings and Assault Weapons, and the Gun Violence Committee. He has served as co-chair of the President’s Committee on Access to Justice, chair of the Working Group on Facial Recognition Technology, and as liaison to the Leadership and Development Committee. He is also a member of the Working Group on Puerto Rico, the Non-Resident Subcommittee and the Corporate Counsel Section, where he has served as the Executive Committee liaison.
Napoletano has served on the association’s Executive Committee as vice president of the 2nd Judicial District and as a representative to the House of Delegates for the Brooklyn Bar Association. Napoletano was recently appointed by Presiding Justice Hector D. LaSalle to the Second Department’s Task Force on Artificial Intelligence.
Napoletano has been involved his entire legal career in local and minority bars. He is the past president of the Brooklyn Bar Association and has served on the Board of Directors of its foundation. He is the chairman of the Brooklyn Bar Associations Part 137 Attorney Fee Arbitration Committee. He has served as past president and chairman of the board of the Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn. He is the past president of the Confederation of Columbian Lawyers of the State of New York, and president of the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Kings County. He has served as the treasurer and member of the board of directors of the Bedford Stuyvesant Legal Services Corp., as well as vice president of the Bedford Stuyvesant Foundation for Civil Justice. He has served as a member of the grievance committees for the 2nd, 11th and 13th Judicial Districts.
Napoletano has received awards in recognition of his distinct service, including the Boy Scouts of America, the Stars & Stripes Democratic Club Community Service Award, Kings County Democratic Party Distinguished Honoree, the Catholic Lawyers Guild Distinguished Service Award, the St. Thomas Moore Award, and the President’s Award in addition to Man of the Year from the Van Westerhout Cittadini Molesi Cultural, Sport and Social Club for promoting the welfare of Italian Americans, the Hofstra Law School’s Alumn of the Month, the Brooklyn Bar Association award for distinguished service twice, and in 1980 the Student Merit award as its first white member of the Hofstra chapter of the Black American Law Student Association (BALSA).
His dedication includes memberships in a variety of other organizations where he will often appear or has been asked to lecture for CLE programs. They include the Nathan R. Sobel Inns of Court, Kiwanis Club, Hofstra University Law School Diversity Admissions Committee, Lay Advisory Committee Diocese of Brooklyn/Queens and as a past advisory board member for Investors Bank, member of the board of directors for the Volunteer Lawyers Project Board, committee member for the Brooklyn Borough President’s Legal Task Force, and on the American Bar Association Gun Violence Advisory Commission.
Napoletano earned his law degree from Hofstra University School of Law and his undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College. While in college, and throughout law school, Napoletano worked for then-New York State Assemblyman Michael L. Pesce, retired presiding justice of the state Supreme Court Appellate Term for the 2nd, 11th and 13th Judicial Districts.