NYSBA Leadership
Officers
Domenick Napoletano, President
Domenick Napoletano is a practitioner focusing on complex commercial litigation and appellate work while maintaining a busy general practice. Several of his cases have appeared in published decisions, many involving real property and tenancy and occupancy issues. He has spearheaded state and federal class action lawsuits, including notably against the New York City Department of Finance for…
Read MoreDomenick Napoletano is a practitioner focusing on complex commercial litigation and appellate work while maintaining a busy general practice. Several of his cases have appeared in published decisions, many involving real property and tenancy and occupancy issues. He has spearheaded state and federal class action lawsuits, including notably against the New York City Department of Finance for its imposition of “vault taxes.” He is admitted in the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as the Southern and Eastern District of New York and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He has been a member of the New York State Bar since 1981.
Napoletano’s involvement in New York State Bar Association activities are numerous and include being the past chair of the General Practice Section and co-chair of the Committee on Civil Practice Law and Rules. He previously co-chaired the Emergency Task Force for Solo and Small Firm Practitioner. He has served on many association committees, including Finance, Leadership & Development, Bar Leaders of New York State, Animals in the Law, co-chair of the President’s Committee on Access to Justice, the Task Force on the Evaluation of Candidates for Election to Judicial Office, the Task Force on Mass Shootings and Assault Weapons, the Gun Violence Committee, the Executive Committee, chair of the Working Group on Facial Recognition Technology, and as liaison to the Leadership & Development Committee along with the working group on Puerto Rico, the Non-Resident Subcommittee and the Corporate Counsel Section.
Napoletano has served on the association’s Executive Committee, as vice president, from the 2nd Judicial District and the House of Delegates representing the Brooklyn Bar Association. Napoletano was recently appointed by presiding Justice Hector D. LaSalle to the Second Departments Task Force on Artificial Intelligence.
Napoletano has been involved his entire legal career in local and minority bars. He is the past president of the Brooklyn Bar Association and has served on the Board of Directors of its Foundation. He is the chairman of the Brooklyn Bar Associations Part 137 Attorney Fee Arbitration Committee. He has served as past president and chairman of the board of the Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn. He is the past President of the Confederation of Columbian Lawyers of the State of New York, and President of the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Kings County. He has served as the treasurer and member of the board of directors of the Bedford Stuyvesant Legal Services Corp., as well as past vice president of the Bedford Stuyvesant Foundation for Civil Justice. He has served as a member of the Grievance Committee 2nd, 11th and 13th Judicial Districts.
Napoletano has received awards in recognition of his distinct service, including the Boy Scouts of America, the Stars & Stripes Democratic Club Community Service Award, Kings County Democratic Party Distinguished Honoree, the Catholic Lawyers Guild Distinguished Service Award, the St. Thomas Moore Award, and the President’s Award in addition to Man of the Year Van Westerhout Cittadini Molesi for promoting the welfare of Italian-Americans, the Hofstra Law School’s Alumni of the Month, the Brooklyn Bar Association award for distinguished service twice, and in 1980 the Student Merit award as its first white member of the Hofstra chapter of the Black American Law Student Association (BALSA).
His dedication includes memberships in a variety of other organizations where he will often appear or has been asked to lecture on CLE. They include the Nathan R. Sobel Inns of Court, Kiwanis Club, Hofstra University Law School Diversity Admissions Committee, Lay Advisory Committee Diocese of Brooklyn/Queens and as a past advisory board member for Investors Bank, member of the board of directors for the Volunteer Lawyers Project Board, committee member for the Brooklyn Borough President’s Legal Task Force, and on the American Bar Association Gun Violence Advisory Commission.
Napoletano earned his law degree from Hofstra University School of Law and his undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College. While in college, and throughout law school, Napoletano worked for then-New York State Assemblyman Michael L. Pesce, retired presiding justice of the state Supreme Court Appellate Term for the 2nd, 11th and 13th Judicial Districts.
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Kathleen Sweet
President-Elect
Taa R. Grays
Secretary
Susan L. Harper
Treasurer
Richard C. Lewis
Immediate Past President
NYSBA Officers include the President, President-Elect, Secretary, and Treasurer. The President-Elect automatically becomes President the year following election.
The control and administration of the NYSBA is vested in the House of Delegates, the decision and policy-making body of the Association. The House meets four times a year (January, April, June and November). Action taken by the House of Delegates on specific issues becomes official NYSBA policy.
NYSBA Bylaws
The Bylaws are the governing rules of the New York State Bar Association and regulate the structure of the organization, the roles of officers, membership provisions, and the workings of NYSBA sections, committees, and the House of Delegates.
Totaling thirty members, the Executive Committee has the authority to act and speak on behalf of the Association, consistent with previous action of the House of Delegates, when the House is not in session. The Executive Committee meets quarterly before meetings of the House of Delegates and at other times as necessary.
The Executive Committee is composed of the officers of the Association, together with vice-presidents from each of the thirteen judicial districts in the state (the 1st district has two vice-presidents), eight members-at-large, and the immediate past president. All officers are elected to serve one-year terms.
All members of the Executive Committee also serve in the House of Delegates.
Section Chairs represent 27 NYSBA Sections. Each Section draws its membership from lawyers or judges with common professional interests. Sections operate with their own officers, dues schedule and committees. They address professional development, improvement of laws and continuing education in a variety of substantive law fields.
Kathleen Sweet
Kathleen Sweet’s practice includes the defense of medical malpractice actions and legal malpractice actions. She also represents physicians and other health care professionals subject to discipline at the institutional level and with respect to state and federal investigations and actions. A former confidential law clerk to New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, Fourth Department, she also handles appeals. She is a certified mediator for the United States District Court for the Western District of New York.
Sweet has also held leadership positions within other bar associations and is a past president of the Bar Association of Erie County. She has also served in the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates. She was a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Task Force on Medical Aid in Dying and on the Task Force on Advancing Diversity.
In 2016 Sweet was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as a United States District Court Judge. Her nomination was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. As was the case for many nominees that year, the Senate majority declined to hold a vote on her nomination before the end of the 114th Congress.
She is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America. She served on the Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commission for the New York State Eighth Judicial District from 2014 to 2016 and has been a member of the New York State committee on character and Fitness for the Eighth Judicial District for over 10 years. She was the founding chair of the Upstate Tri-County Bar Association Commission on Judicial Appointments. In addition, Sweet served on the board of directors of the Volunteer Lawyer’s Project and she has been a volunteer ambassador for AIDS Community Services for several years.
Taa R. Grays
Taa Grays is vice president and associate general counsel of information governance at MetLife Legal Affairs. As the lead of information governance, Grays is responsible for the strategic management of MetLife’s global Information Governance Program. She leads a seven-person team that develops, implements and manages the information governance strategic plan.
Grays was co-chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Strategic Planning Committee, the Task Force on Racism, Social Equity and the Law, and the Task Force on Racial Injustice and Police Reform. She is a member of the Business Law, Corporate Counsel and Women in Law sections. She served as vice president of the First Judicial District on the Executive Committee and chaired the New York State Conference of Bar Leaders and the Committee on Women in the Law (now the Women in Law Section).
Grays was honored with the State Bar Association’s Diversity Trailblazer Award in 2008.
She started with MetLife in 2003 in the litigation section and served as the chief of staff to the general counsel from 2010 to 2015. Prior to MetLife, Grays was an assistant district attorney with the Bronx District Attorney’s Office in its rackets bureau for five-and-a-half years.
Grays was recognized as one of 100 Leading Women Lawyers in New York by Crain’s New York Business in 2017, a Visionary Leader in Litigation by Inside Counsel in 2016, one of the Most Influential Black Lawyers in 2015 and named Ready to Rise to become a general counsel in 2013 and 2015.
Within the legal community, the New York City Bar Association recognized Grays as a Diversity Champion in 2015.
The Metropolitan Black Bar Association acknowledged her dedication and leadership to the bar in 2010 by honoring her with its inaugural Bar Leaders of the Year Award.
Grays earned her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University.
Susan L. Harper
Susan L. Harper began her term as treasurer of the New York State Bar Association on June 1, 2023.
Harper is the founding chair of the association’s Women in Law Section and served as chair of the Committee on Women in the Law, where she successfully spearheaded initiatives and legislation to advance issues pertaining to women in the legal profession and advocated for the fair and equitable treatment of all women under the law.
Harper serves on the association’s Executive Committee, Finance Committee, Investment Committee, and Audit Committee. She served as chair of the association’s Attorney-Client Relations Working Group on the Task Force of the Future of the Legal Profession Post-Pandemic and was a member of the NYSBA’s Task Force on Strategic Planning. Prior to becoming an officer, she had presented to the House of Delegates on six occasions to advance issues regarding paid leave, the Equal Rights Amendment, and the creation of the WIL Section.
Harper has been admitted to the New York and New Jersey Bars. She focuses her solo practice on business advisory, financial services, senior fraud and financial exploitation prevention, legislation, policy development, and not for profit law. She has represented major broker-dealers, insurance companies and clearing firms and their employees on matters before the Financial In-dustry Regulatory Authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission and state and federal courts in connection with customer, industry, and employment disputes. Most recently, she served as Managing Director of a nationally recognized financial services expert witness and consulting firm.
As founder of Sharper Nicolas, Harper advances and amplifies issues, ideas, causes, and services through advocacy, strategy, and communications, including environmental preservation, joy, and justice.
She is a member of the New York County Lawyers Association Board of Directors and its Nominating Committee, co-chairs the Securities and Exchange Committee, and is a past Women’s Rights Committee chair.
Harper served as president and chair of the board and executive committee of the Financial Women’s Association of New York and the FWA of the New York Educational Fund. She also served as the FWA board restructuring chair and general counsel for several years and was the organization’s liaison to the United States military for over a decade.
Harper earned her law degree from New York Law School and her bachelor’s degree in business management from Simmons College in Boston.
Richard C. Lewis
Richard C. Lewis maintains a general legal practice at Hinman, Howard & Kattell where he focuses on litigation and business law.
Dick devotes significant time to the formation of business entities and advising clients regarding all aspects of business activities. He is also involved in estate planning, preparation of wills, real estate, construction matters, and other personal matters for individual clients and families.
Dick is also a veteran of New York’s courts. His experience includes litigating commercial disputes in Supreme Court, and handling matrimonial and family court matters. He is also involved in Municipal Law representing municipalities and claimants.
Dick is the President of the New York State Bar Association. He has served on the House of Delegates for a number of years representing Broome County and the 6th Judicial District and has served as the Vice-President of the 6th Judicial District. He has chaired or been an active member of numerous task forces and committees. He is also a member of the Court Modernization Action Committee of New York’s Unified court system. He is also active in the American Bar Association and serves on a number of its committees.
Dick is very active in the community. He serves on the Editorial Board of The Reporter (newspaper), the Endowment Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Binghamton, and the Broome County Bar Association (past President and recipient of the Ted Gallando Award).
In addition, Dick has served as a Director and Vice President of the Broome Sports Foundation, and served as a Chair of both the Grievance Committee and Ethics Committee of the Broome County Bar Association as well as Chair of the Broome County Bar Association Endowment Committee. He is a former Trustee of Hillel Academy of Broome County and served as its President from 2002-2012; is a former Member of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Discipline, and is a Member of the Municipal and Government Law Section. He is past President of the Board of Trustees of Temple Israel, past Chair of the Broome County Arena Board; past President of Broome Legal Assistance Corporation; a past Director of Children’s Home of Wyoming Conference; and past Director of SOS Shelter, Inc., and a member of the Northern District of New York Federal Court Bar Association.