NYSBA Efforts Yield Economic Benefits for Members
10.22.2025
The New York State Bar Association is working with the Commercial Division Advisory Council to provide economic benefits to NYSBA members and the State of New York. NYSBA President Kathleen Sweet discusses these joint efforts.
Q: To put this conversation in context, remind us about your priorities as NYSBA president.
A: My principal goal is to build upon NYSBA’s legacy and record of accomplishments by increasing membership and addressing our members’ needs. I am happy to report that engagement with member benefits is increasing substantially. Above all, NYSBA is a member services organization. We help our members to help their clients.
Q: In a Q&A about a year ago, your predecessor Domenick Napoletano discussed some of the joint efforts by NYSBA and the Commercial Division Advisory Council to provide economic benefits to NYSBA members and the State of New York.
A: Yes, I remember Domenick’s article. The title was “NYSBA Works To Bring Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Legal Fees to N.Y.”
Q: That’s a lot of money. How could that be possible?
A: NYSBA has been helping its members develop their law practices by bringing commercial litigation to New York for many years. The capabilities and expertise of New York’s business court, the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court, attract commercial litigation to New York State, which might otherwise be brought in other states or countries. Thousands of cases are filed in the Commercial Division every year and many of these complex cases generate very substantial legal fees.
Q: Can you give us an example of NYSBA’s past efforts?
A: NYSBA has been distributing the short educational film about the Commercial Division, which the Commercial Division Advisory Council has produced (available at https://vimeo.com/1060574090/e2635bcfaf) and the one-page flyer describing the Commercial Division, which has been developed jointly by the Commercial Division Advisory Council and New York’s largest business organization, the Business Council of New York State, Inc. We are also distributing a document entitled, “The Benefits of the Commercial Division to the State of New York,” which demonstrates how the Commercial Division helps New York State to attract and retain businesses and therefore to generate tax revenues and provide jobs.
Q: Can you give us a recent example of NYSBA providing economic benefits to its members in connection with the Commercial Division?
A: I will give you one very recent example that literally might involve hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees for New York lawyers. On Oct. 8, the Chief Administrative Judge of the New York Courts signed an Administrative Order amending the Commercial Division Rules to clarify the types of insurance coverage cases that will be heard by the Commercial Division. The impetus for these amendments was ambiguities in the Commercial Division’s jurisdictional rules, which have created confusion and difficulties for the commercial insurance disputes bar and the courts and have prevented some major insurance coverage disputes from being heard in the Commercial Division. The amendments were suggested by the NYSBA Commercial and Federal Litigation Section and now make clear that complex commercial insurance coverage disputes will be heard in the Commercial Division where the justices have substantial experience and expertise in construing complex contracts.
Q: How could these amendments generate hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees?
A: I will give you two example of cases that were not assigned to the Commercial Division prior to adoption of these amendments. The first example is an insurance coverage action filed in New York by an insured involving hundreds of millions of dollars in payments for opioid-related underlying lawsuits, which was not assigned to the Commercial Division even though competing actions filed by the insurers were allowed into Delaware’s Complex Commercial Litigation Division. The second example is an Administrative Order dated Jan. 10 denying Commercial Division jurisdiction for a complex commercial insurance declaratory judgment action that involved commercial liability policies issued by several major insurance companies to BASF Corporation, a major corporation with a market cap as of January 2025 of $43.8 billion. The dispute involved $316.5 million in coverage claims. These are just two examples of one of the most common types of complex corporate litigation, which these amendments were designed to bring to the Commercial Division.
Q: Can you give us another recent example of NYSBA’s efforts to provide economic benefits to its members?
A: The Commercial Division Advisory Council is presenting a one-hour virtual program about the Commercial Division for in-house counsel on Thursday, Nov. 13. The program is designed to communicate to in-house counsel the benefits and advantages of litigating commercial disputes in the Commercial Division. The Advisory Council is hopeful that the program will persuade in-house counsel to bring more commercial cases in New York State and that New York lawyers will be retained as counsel in many of these cases. NYSBA’s Commercial and Federal Litigation Section has sent the agenda of the program to all of its members as well as sample text, which they can use to invite their clients or other in-house counsel to attend this program. We are hopeful that these invitations will lead to engagement of NYSBA members as counsel in many additional Commercial Division cases.
Q: Can NYSBA members who are not members of the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section invite in-house counsel to attend this program?
A: Yes, all NYSBA members may invite current or potential clients to attend this program. The Commercial Division Advisory Council particularly encourages NYSBA members to send these invitations to in-house counsel in states outside New York or in other countries.
