President Kathleen Sweet Talks About Efforts To Protect the Rule of Law
10.25.2025
Dear Colleagues:
Please allow me to report briefly on the Association’s recent activities.
We are collaborating with several organizations around the country in support of the rule of law and advocating to preserve and enhance access to justice. One example of this vital work is our advocacy to save funding for the Legal Services Corporation. The Administration’s plans to zero out funding and shutter the Legal Services Corporation would deprive millions of Americans of their fundamental right to legal representation.
This past summer, I was able to work with our Congressional delegation. Representative Grace Meng, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, spoke out urgently and eloquently against these cuts. I want to thank the hundreds of NYSBA members who took part in our letter-writing campaign to save LSC.
Given the threat to the Legal Services Corporation, funding for Civil Legal Services at the state level has never been more important. It was my honor to sit on the panel at the Civil Legal Services hearing last month when Chief Judge Rowan Wilson restated his commitment to state funding for civil legal services, including an allocation of $150 million, a $45 million increase from last year’s budget.
But the justice gap is still widening, and so we continue to lobby the State Legislature and Governor Hochul to increase funding for critical programs.
We have also been in close and frequent contact with the Governor about our support for Medical Aid in Dying. I am very proud of our advocacy on this important legislation, which is also endorsed by the Medical Society of the State of New York, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the New York Nursing Association, and dozens of others.
I have submitted written testimony to the State’s Standing Committee on Alcoholism and Substance Use Disorders, outlining our support for the Treatment Court Expansion Act, which was detailed in our 2023 Task Force Report on Mental Health and Trauma Informed Representation.
I also sent a letter to the Governor advocating for a bill to reform New York state correctional facilities in response to increasing violence and preventable deaths. The bill includes 10 prison oversight and accountability recommendations that address systemic issues in the New York prison system. It has passed both the Assembly and the Senate and awaits the governor’s signature.
We have also continued to have influence within the American Bar Association.
At its Annual Meeting in August, the ABA approved a resolution from us (and the ABA’s Standing Committee on Gun Violence) that recommends laws requiring gun owners to report promptly missing firearms. I want to thank Margaret Finnerty, the chair of our Task Force on Mass Shootings and Assault Weapons, for addressing the ABA House of Delegates on this crucial matter.
We have also reached out to media outlets to express our views on policy.
In August, The Buffalo News published a column highlighting our Task Force’s work on Medical Aid in Dying and our support for that legislation. Earlier this month, Bloomberg Law published an article on how the President’s installation of unvetted, unconfirmed U.S. Attorneys violates the separation of powers.
Unbelievably, members of the judiciary now face threats and violent rhetoric when their rulings do not align with the administration’s goals.
There have been other assaults on the rule of law, the right to due process, and on constitutional norms and institutions long taken for granted and now cast aside or steam rolled over. Lawyers and the Judiciary must hold the line for the Constitution when Congress will not.
It is therefore also more important than ever for citizens to be well informed. We hosted a Media Literacy Convocation earlier this week here at the Bar Center. Panelists offered insights and strategies to help students and teachers improve their ability to discern fact from disinformation.
We are also addressing other issues of importance to the profession, and we will hear later this morning from:
- Our Task Force on Opioid Addiction.
- Our Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct.
- Our Task Force on Ageism in the Legal Profession.
- Our Trusts and Estates Law Section, on a Legislative Proposal to Address the Matter of Proving a Lost Trust.
And the reason we have such an impact is because of the strength of our membership. Over 50,000! We can never take that for granted. Just last week, I attended the meeting of our International Section where 30 countries were represented and over 200 lawyers and judges attended.
Retaining and adding members is key to wielding the influence to combat threats to our judicial system and our democracy. There is good news on that front as well. Twenty-seven sections have experienced double-digit percentage increases in their membership over the past year, and CLE program registrations have more than doubled.
The Biz Ops team, in collaboration with the Committee on AI and Emerging Technologies, is developing a new technology solution that will enhance the Association’s existing member benefits.
‘My NYSBA AI’ will allow members to submit prompts that will return results through an online agent interface, utilizing NYSBA’s vast collection of content across our eBooks, publications, CLEs, and other online content. This AI tool will effectively “layer” on top of all existing NYSBA content and provide members a method to query the content across practice areas, subject matter, and more dimensions.
The tool will provide direct links to the relevant documents or content and would exclusively use NYSBA’s already highly vetted content as source material.
Members will be able to access this solution through their existing My NYSBA website interface. We are very excited about this project and hope to bring this first-of-its-kind solution for Bar Associations to our members this spring.
We are most connected when we interact in person and the premier event for that is our Annual Meeting in January. We are only 80 days away. I am excited to see you at the New York Hilton Midtown to celebrate our 150th anniversary.
Thousands of attorneys will be here, including experts from all over the country.
The Presidential Gala will take place on Thursday, January 15. We will present our most prestigious award, the Gold Medal, at the gala. Please buy your tickets before it sells out. I am also very excited about the Presidential Summit, which will take place on Wednesday the 14th. It is a must-attend event! Pulitzer Prize Winning Stanford Historian Jack Rakove and Yale University Rule of Law Clinic Director Sonia Mittal will lead an important conversation on the state of the U.S. Constitution and the fragility of our democracy in 2026. Television anchor, author, and commentator Lawrence O’Donnell will moderate that discussion.
In closing, while the challenges are many and can seem daunting, we are doing our part. The Rule of Law cannot defend itself—it requires all of us. As importantly it requires something for each of us.
Thank you.
