The New York State Bar Association’s Task Force on Advancing Diversity will issue a report in August that will recommend how colleges and universities, corporations and law firms and courts and government entities can preserve diversity in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action at Harvard and the University of … Continued
The New York State Bar Association is launching a task force that will come up with recommendations on how best to prosecute hate crimes against Asian Americans and Jewish Americans and examine what can be done about the alarming increase in hate crimes. “Hate does not belong in our communities,” said New York State Bar … Continued
LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV do not trust the criminal legal system, according to a survey conducted by Lambda Legal in partnership with Black and Pink National and Strength in Numbers Consulting Group. Richard Saenz, senior attorney at Lambda Legal and project manager for the survey, discussed the results at a continuing legal … Continued
The opportunity to serve as the 126th president of the New York State Bar Association is the highest honor of my professional career. It is the culmination of all my work for this association, from my service as Executive Committee liaison to the Task Force on Rural Justice to chairing the Uniform Court Rules Committee … Continued
Readers may recall this column that ran in the Bar Journal from 2004 to 2018. After a five-year hiatus, corresponding to a period of significant changes in New York civil practice, occasioned in part by the pandemic but also by systemic changes, some pre-dating the pandemic, we pick up where the column left off.[1] Our … Continued
It took me five years of practicing trust and estates law to develop my own estate plan. The cobbler’s children have no shoes, right? I spent my days counseling clients on the importance of having a will and advance directives, at the very least, and could not find the time over a period of years … Continued
On June 26, President Joe Biden announced that New York State will receive $664,618,251.49 in federal money for investment in broadband. This money will be allocated over two years and was made possible by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. In 2021, the New York State Bar Association recognized the need for increased … Continued
Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is joining Brad Karp, chair of Paul, Weiss, and former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson as chairs of the New York State Bar Association’s blue-ribbon Task Force on Advancing Diversity. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 29 that decades of race-conscious policies at Harvard University and the University … Continued
Richard Lewis, president of the New York State Bar Association, issued the following statement about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, No. 21-476, 599 U.S.__ (2023): “The New York State Bar Association vows to continue its fight for equal rights following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 303 Creative LLC … Continued
Richard Lewis, president of the New York State Bar Association, issued the following statement about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today in Biden v. Nebraska: “The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the U.S. Department of Education exceeded its authority with its student loan forgiveness program. We respect the court’s decision. “We also respect the … Continued