Kathleen Sweet To Focus on Membership When She Takes Over President-Elect Role in June
2.16.2024
President-Elect Kathleen Sweet will immediately focus on supporting the New York State Bar Association’s next leader while her efforts beyond that will center on backing the Strategic Planning Committee in its development of a framework for the association’s future success.
“I initially want to support Domenick Napoletano and his presidency while down the road my focus will be on serving our membership so we may continue to retain them while attracting new members. I’m excited about the new membership model and the rolling out of that plan, which I’m confident will help us meet our goals.”
Sweet will take over as the association’s president on June 1, 2025, and will succeed Napoletano, who will assume the presidency this June. She will become only the ninth woman to hold the office among the 127 individuals who will have preceded her. It is something she greatly appreciates.
“I know all the past eight women presidents and Maryann Saccomando Freedman particularly has been a role model. I’m very proud to follow in her footsteps,” she said.
Freedman, who in 1987-88 served as the New York State Bar Association’s first female president, and Sweet both come from the Buffalo area where the association’s future leader is a partner at Gibson, McAskill & Crosby.
Sweet mostly works in healthcare law, an area she developed an interest in early on in her career due to the diverse medical practice areas that her clients worked in. She is the first and only woman to serve on her firm’s management committee.
Sweet is well positioned to assume the NYSBA presidency due in part to her experience in several leadership positions within various bar associations. She served as president of Bar Association of Erie County in 2012-13 and was a member of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates from 2017-22. The former role granted her an automatic seat in the NYSBA House of Delegates and provided the impetus for her to become active in the association due to its impact on the legal profession.
Sweet, a member of the Executive Committee as vice president of the Eighth Judicial District, is part of the Task Force on Medical Aid in Dying and the Task Force on Advancing Diversity.
She earned her juris doctorate from Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law and completed her undergraduate studies at Boston College where in 2004 she was inducted into the Varsity Club Hall of Fame following an outstanding basketball career for the Eagles.
Sweet has been married for 27 years to Brian Fredericks who is a recently retired civil structural engineer. They have two children, a daughter Caroline Fredericks who is attending Northeastern School of Law and a son Michael Fredericks who works as an analyst for a defense contractor in the Washington, D.C. area.
They also have two labrador retrievers and are Buffalo Bills season ticket holders.
