NYSBA Leadership

Michelle Wildgrube (willed-grew-bee) has been a principal of Cioffi • Slezak • Wildgrube P.C. (formerly Carpenter & Cioffi, P.C.) since 2004 and has been with the firm since 1999. Prior to joining Cioffi • Slezak • Wildgrube P.C., she worked for a general practice firm that provided a broad foundation for her practice which now concentrates on estate planning and administration, corporate and business law, and real estate.

Her one-year term as President of the New York State Bar Association will commence on June 1, 2027. She serves on the NYSBA Executive Committee and is co-chair of the Membership Committee. Wildgrube is also a former chair of NYSBA’s Real Property Law Section and the section’s delegate to the House of Delegates. She was elected to be NYSBA’s delegate to the American Bar Association during the 2026 Annual Meeting.

In addition, Wildgrube is active in local bar associations. She is a member of the Schenectady County Bar Association and a former chair of its Real Estate Practice Committee. She also serves on the board of directors of the Federation of Bar Associations, Fourth Judicial District (Past President).

Wildgrube was the recipient of the Schenectady County Bar Association’s first Young Lawyer Award (along with Amy Robinson), the Schenectady County Bar Association’s 2012 Lawyer of the Year Award and the New York State Bar Association’s 2013 President’s Pro Bono Award.

She holds a J.D. from the University at Buffalo School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in English from Rutgers University. She resides in Niskayuna with her husband, Drew, and Maisie and Lilo, the family dogs.

Thomas J. Maroney is the secretary of the New York State Bar Association. He previously served on the NYSBA Executive Committee and in the NYSBA House of Delegates as an elected member-at-large. Maroney is chair of the NYSBA Committee on Association Insurance Programs and a member of the Gala Sales Committee. He also serves on the NYSBA Committee To Review Judicial Nominations.

Maroney served as a member of the Task Force on Medical Aid in Dying, Working Group on Facial Recognition Technology and Access to Legal Representation, and the Emergency Task Force on Solo and Small Firm Practitioners. He also served as the NYSBA Membership Committee chair.
Maroney was a contributing author of NYSBA’s “Post-Trial Practice and Procedures.” He has lectured on civil trial practice, negotiation strategies and alternative dispute resolution. He served as chair of the NYSBA Torts, Insurance, and Compensation Law Section.

He is the president of the New York City Trial Lawyers Alliance, which is dedicated to promoting professionalism and collegiality in civil trial advocacy.
Maroney is a past president of the Defense Association of New York and the Emerald Association of Long Island. He has served on the board of directors of the Defense Research Institute and St. John’s University School of Law Alumni Association. He serves on the boards of the New York County Lawyers Association and New York Claim Association.

He is also a member of the Bronx County Bar Association and Nassau County Bar Association. A graduate of Siena University (formerly Siena College) and St. John’s University School of Law, Maroney has dedicated his practice to high exposure, catastrophic and complex civil defense litigation. He has been a member of the First Department Character and Fitness Committee since 1998.

Maroney is the recipient of the Defense Research Institute Outstanding State Representative Award; the DRI Exceptional Performance Award; the New York State Bar Association Section Diversity Challenge Champion Award as chair of the Torts, Insurance, and Compensation Law Section as well as the section’s Leach Memorial Award; the New York City Brehon Law Society Outstanding Attorney Award and the Institute of Jewish Humanities Defense Lawyer of the Year Award.

The Defense Association of New York presented the James S. Conway Award to Maroney in recognition of his lifetime of dedication to the ideals of diversity, equality, professionalism and dignity for all who seek justice through our courts. The New York Claim Association recently honored Maroney with its lifetime achievement award.

Susan L. Harper has been treasurer of the New York State Bar Association since 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, and is the Executive Committee liaison to the Women in Law Section (WILS), the Committee on Attorney Well-Being, and the Lawyer Assistance Committee. She served as chair of the association’s Attorney-Client Relations Working Group on the Task Force on the Post-Pandemic Future of the Profession and was a member of NYSBA’s Strategic Planning Committee, the Task Force on Free Expression in the Digital Age, the Working Group on Judiciary Law Section 470 and chair of the Women in Law Section’s Centennial Suffrage Commemoration initiative.

Harper is a member of NYSBA’s Corporate Counsel, Elder Law and Special Needs (and its legislative subcommittee), Commercial and Federal Litigation, and Business Law sections. Prior to becoming an officer, she presented to the House of Delegates on six occasions to advance paid leave, the Equal Rights Amendment, and the creation of the Women in Law Section. She has moderated and presented at three marquee NYSBA Annual Meeting Presidential Summits and has testified before the New York State Legislature on behalf the association.

Harper has been admitted to the New York and New Jersey bars. She focuses her practice on financial services, senior fraud and financial exploitation prevention, business advisory, estate planning, policy and legislative development, and not for profit law. She drives and elevates critical issues through strategic advocacy, education and communications, including efforts to protect vulnerable individuals, nature and the environment.

Harper has represented major broker-dealers, insurance companies and clearing firms and their employees on matters before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission and state and federal courts in connection with customer, industry and employment disputes. She recently served as a managing director of a nationally recognized consulting firm offering services in litigation, regulatory compliance and data analytics consulting and expert testimony for financial services firms.

Harper is a member of the New York County Lawyers Association board of directors, its Nominating Committee, and Rule of Law Committee. She is a past co-chair of the Securities and Exchanges Committee and Women’s Rights Committee.

She served as president and chair of the board and on the Executive Committee of the Financial Women’s Association of New York and the FWA of the New York Educational Fund. She also served as its 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. In law school, she was a founding editor and publisher of the ABA award-winning newspaper The L and served as a reporter and later legal editor for the New York Law Journal and editor for the National Law Journal/ALM Marketing. While in law school, she also served as a judicial extern to the Hon. Nicholas Tsoucalas at the U.S. Court of International Trade and at the New York City Law Department. Prior to entering law, she conducted international business.

Harper is a recipient of Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law’s Outstanding Women in Law award and has been honored as a Public Sector Woman of the Year by the Financial Women’s Association of New York.

Kathleen Marie Sweet is the Immediate Past President of the New York State Bar Association. She was the ninth woman to serve as president in the 150-year history of the association.

Her practice includes the defense of medical malpractice actions and legal malpractice actions. A former confidential law clerk to the 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.

Kathleen has held leadership positions with other bar associations and is a past president of the Bar Association of Erie County. She also serves 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 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, but 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 was 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, she 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.

Kathleen focused her presidency on advancing membership and encouraging lawyers and judges to honor their oaths by defending the rule of law.