NYSBA in the News: COVID-19 Raises Many Many Issues in the Legal World

NYSBA in the News: COVID-19 Raises Many Many Issues in the Legal World

4.21.2020

By Brendan Kennedy

There is no part of the legal world that has not been impacted by the COVID-19 public health emergency, and the pandemic and its effects have led to many questions and raised many concerns.

The Wall St. Journal quoted NYSBA President Hank Greenberg in a story about how bar exam delays due to coronavirus are upending career plans for graduating law schools students. His commetns in the article were also picked up by Axios and Above The Law.

“The job market is beyond grim, and then they are in this no man’s land,” New York State Bar Association President Hank Greenberg said of new graduates’ inability to take the bar.

“It’s far from certain where we’ll be in early September,” Mr. Greenberg of the New York State Bar Association said, adding that it is possible the September bar exam dates could also be changed.

In the Albany Times-Union Greenberg, who is a former general counsel for the state Department of Health, weighed in on revised medical malpractice rules outlined in a recent executive order from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo.

“In normal circumstances, it would be unthinkable to confer immunity in this fashion,” said Henry Greenberg, president of the New York State Bar Association,

“But now, in the midst of a global pandemic in which New York state is the epicenter, in which our health care providers are every day heroically putting themselves, their health and safety in harm’s way, it’s understandable that the governor would act in such fashion.”

Hank Greenberg also had an opinion piece in Saturday’s Albany Times-Union regarding immigrant’s rights.

The New York State Bar Association has long supported immigrants and worked on policies to support them, such as providing a right to counsel for those who face deportation and calling for an end to inhumane treatment of those held by ICE.