Survival of the Fittest: As Membership Declines, the New York State Bar Association Targets Lawyers in Other Countries and States

Survival of the Fittest: As Membership Declines, the New York State Bar Association Targets Lawyers in Other Countries and States

10.2.2019

By Susan DeSantis

The New York Law Journal quoted President Greenberg on NYSBA’s strategic plan to attract attorneys across the globe. (may require subscription)

Seoul is almost 7,000 miles from the New York State Bar Association’s headquarters in Albany but nevertheless, New York City lawyer Hyun Suk Choi spent last week at an International Bar Association meeting in South Korea urging foreign lawyers to join.

Why? Hank Greenberg, a Greenberg Traurig shareholder and the association’s president, said the answer is in the numbers. Some 26,000 lawyers who are admitted to practice in New York list overseas addresses, and another 118,000 are based in other states; together that constituency is almost as formidable as the 182,000 inside the state.