President’s Report to the House of Delegates: Speaking Out Against Attacks on the Legal Community and Celebrating Association Growth
4.13.2026
Good morning:
We continue to celebrate our 150th anniversary and especially the recent gains in membership. Due to the hard work of so many people, we are reaping the benefits of the new membership model, realizing historic growth within our sections and a surge in overall membership.
Membership in each section has grown by at least 10%, participation in CLE programming is at an all-time high and our year-over-year memberships are up for the first time in over a decade.
But before I go further, we have some breaking news.
I’d like to congratulate Kathy Suchocki on being appointed as our next permanent Executive Director of the association.
I would expect a round of applause, if not a standing ovation.
So, yesterday at the Executive Committee, we appointed Kathy as the new permanent Executive Director, following a process that began shortly after the Annual Meeting. I formed a working group of current, future, and recent past leaders.
And after meetings and discussion, the answer to our question, who should lead our staff and continue Pam’s legacy, was obvious: Kathy.
She has served the association for over 21 years and has led our most successful departments and initiatives. No one is more qualified or deserving. Congratulations. I could go on, but I told her in advance, “You know how much I love you, so I’m not going to say the whole thing.” So, thank you, and congratulations, Kathy.
So, back to talking about our recent successes. Because of the support and leadership of past presidents Dick Lewis and Domenick Napoletano, our Membership Committee co-chairs Michelle Wildgrube and Helen Naves, and our amazing staff in the Membership Department, I am able to report that we now have over 45,000 active members from more than 70 countries. With half of our members choosing auto-renewal, an indication that they value their membership, we should be operating from a position of strength for years to come.
And while it is fitting that we celebrate our accomplishments, our profession, the courts, and even bar associations have been under attack this year.
The Trump administration resists the checks and balances that are the constitutional foundation of our democracy. When U.S. Attorneys have been installed without either vetting or Senate confirmation, we spoke out. More recently, we responded immediately when then-Attorney General Pam Bondi proposed a rule that would exempt Department of Justice attorneys from the normal process of investigation and discipline by state courts and bar associations for violations of the ethical rules governing attorney conduct.
As I have said time and again.
Any lawyer who abandons their oath to the Constitution by intentionally misrepresenting facts or law in court should be properly subject to the same discipline as every other attorney, even if they work for the Department of Justice.
We filed a comment letter opposing the “Bondi Rule,” and have encouraged our members to do the same. As of this writing, over a million public comments have been filed.
We have also spoken out against the administration’s threats to funding the Legal Services Corporation.
Here in New York, we have voiced our concerns about the Governor’s proposed diversion of millions of dollars from the Indigent Legal Services Fund. Redirecting these resources will undermine constitutional mandates, destabilize public defense, and disproportionately harm rural and underserved individuals and communities.
We have also commended some of the Governor’s 2027 Budget proposals, such as increasing funding for the judiciary, protecting the integrity of elections and banning ghost guns.
We also applauded the Governor’s “Sensitive Locations Protection Act,” which safeguards New Yorkers’ constitutional rights to be free from federal overreach, especially in places of worship, in courthouses, in medical facilities, in homeless shelters and in schools — where warrantless civil immigration enforcement actions have recently been taken.
And of course, we celebrated the passage of the Medical Aid in Dying Act in New York. Governor Hochul acknowledged our association’s contributions when she signed the bill into law, and two of her signing pens have been designated and gifted to us for Past President Richard Lewis, who formed the Task Force on Medical Aid in Dying, and the Task Force Chair, Mary Beth Morrissey.
So, these will be given, one to Dick Lewis, and one to Mary Beth Morrissey, and we’re very proud of the success of our work on that initiative and legislation. I also want to credit our government relations team for that. General Counsel David Miranda, Matthew Pennello, and Lena Faustel worked tirelessly to get this to the finish line, so thank you for your guidance and support.
Last month, President-Elect Taa Grays and Past Presidents Steve Younger and Andrew Brown, and Executive Committee member Vince Chang traveled with me to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of our state’s congressional delegation and other congressional leaders.
Over the course of just two days, we met with either these congressional leaders or their senior aides. Senator Charles Schumer, Dan Goldman, Joe Morelli, Grace Meng, Nick Langworthy, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Jerry Nadler, Paul Tonko, Laura Gillen, Tim Kennedy, Adriano Espaillat, Claudia Tenney, John Mannion, Jamie Raskin, and Joe Neguse.
We thanked each of them for their ongoing steady support of L.S.C. funding and urged them, many of whom were unaware of the concerns we had, to oppose the “Bondi Rule” based on the concerns that we had.
These meetings helped fortify our reputation as an expert resource on legal and justice system issues and further demonstrated our commitment to protecting access to justice, defending the rule of law, and defending our profession.
As you know, our Annual Meeting was a success.
Governor Hochul received the association’s Gold Medal at the Gala. We celebrated the courage and entrepreneurial spirit of Madam C.J. Walker at the Constance Baker Motley Symposium, we hosted a timely discussion of Constitutional failure, and we partnered with the Unified Court System and Presiding Justice Elizabeth Garry of the Appellate Division, Third Department, to launch “Rural Ready” – a recruiting initiative to address legal deserts and the lack of attorneys in underserved rural areas throughout New York.
We continue to work toward bringing you “My NYSBA AI,” an AI platform that will allow members to query the association’s vast database. It has the potential to be a transformative tool.
In June, the installation of Taa Grays as President and Michelle Wildgrube as President-Elect will be historic. We will be led by a Black woman and an Asian woman for the first time in our history. And, for the first time, the office of President will be held by women for three consecutive years. We can celebrate the diversity of our membership as reflected in our leadership team.
As this is my final President’s Report to the House of Delegates, I would like to express how grateful I am.
I would also like to acknowledge a few people before I wrap up my remarks. We have been led from behind the scenes by so many people who receive little credit, but who are truly outstanding and devote so much energy and time to the well-being of the association. I’d like to specifically call out Michael McNamara, the chair of our Finance Committee.
His wisdom, patience and careful stewardship of our finances is truly amazing and provides stability and strength to the rest of us on the leadership team.
We couldn’t have a steadier hand helping us in this regard, and we are just so fortunate that he finds us and the association worthy of his time and energy.
Michael, I’ve learned a lot from you, and I’m grateful that my time as president has coincided with some of your time as chair of the Finance Committee, which, I believe, is one of our, if not our most important committee. As we confront an uncertain economic future in these strange times, I’m sure we will continue to benefit from your expertise, leadership, and service.
General Counsel David Miranda.
There’s very rarely a decision or an issue that comes to our leadership team that we don’t run by David for his wisdom, experience, leadership, knowledge of the association, and just excellent judgment.
And that’s not even touching on what I think is his best attribute, which is his sense of humor. There’s nothing better than working with someone who’s your friend and laughing about something, and then they say something that makes you both laugh even harder. And that’s a daily experience that I have in working with David. I can’t thank you enough for your friendship.
To Melissa O’Clair, she’s always doing something for someone, and she’s done so much for me. Thank you.
I’m certainly going to miss someone, but I just feel like I have to try to name people that have been so wonderful and supportive to me.
Chuck and Gary, Gerard, in no particular order. Laura, Eunice, Susan DeSantis, and your team. Tony, Alex, Patrick, Pat Stockli, Stefanie, Amira, Greg. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the things that you’ve done to get us through this just, frankly, terrible time without Pam.
Taa, I can’t wait to see what you do.
Tom, you’re the most positive person I’ve ever met. No matter what the issue, Tom signs off the conversation with…”It’ll all be good. It’ll all be good.”
Susan is just so smart, and she’s also so funny if you get to know her.
Thank you all for your support and steady sympathy and empathy during my year, and especially over the last few months.
I want to thank our past presidents who have been supportive of me. I also want to thank the random members out there who have occasionally sent me notes, supporting and thanking me for whatever I’ve done. I appreciate that more than you can know. And I also want to thank the people that sent me nastygrams and criticisms, because those caused me to consider the next thing I did, and take into account the different views that people have on many of the issues that come before us.
I really don’t have anything else to add other than that I should thank, and I do thank my firm, my family, and all the folks that have helped me get through and supported me in whatever successes we’ve had this year.
So, thank you very much.
