Celebrating Our History: Lauren Sharkey
5.15.2026
In honor of our 150th anniversary, we asked longtime, involved members for their recollections of the New York State Bar Association.
Lauren Sharkey, past chair of the Young Lawyers Section, recalled presenting the proposal to remove mental health-related questions from the state bar application. The New York State Bar Association feared that these questions were preventing aspiring attorneys from seeking treatment and contributing to the mental health crisis in the legal profession.
“As part of the Young Lawyers Section, we were asked to be part of a report that was submitted to the House of Delegates, and even though I was one of many people who worked on that report, I was asked to co-present with David Marshall of the Committee on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar. That was a really cool experience, being able to present that to the House of Delegates.
“There were lots of different groups involved, so the Young Lawyers Section was asked to comment and be part of the group. We were asked to examine the application to the bar. On it, it had some questions about prior mental health history. Our job was to ask, ‘Why is that? Why was that question on there? What purpose does it serve? Is it important for the applicants to disclose it, should that affect their admission to the bar?’
“Ultimately, the working group recommended that it not be included – that the question be eliminated. Just because someone has some mental health history should not be a distinctive factor of them being admitted to the bar.”
As a result of the association’s advocacy, mental health questions were removed from the bar application a few months later.
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.
