WINTER 2021
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Winter 2021
Sheila S. Boston headshot
PRESIDENT’S
COLUMN
BY Sheila S. Boston
Launch of the Six Priorities

Greetings, my beloved New York City Bar Association community!

The New York City Bar Association was two months into commemorating its 150th anniversary when the coronavirus pandemic overran New York City. So much for looking back when so much is coming at us.

The City Bar’s leadership had to decide if and when to shut its doors. The decision was easy, and for a painful reason: One of the City Bar’s greatest assets, its magnificent House of the Association in midtown Manhattan, considered by many the ultimate destination for networking in the legal profession, would clearly also be an ideal networking venue for the coronavirus to super-spread itself. We thus closed our doors and went fully remote on March 19, partially re-opening in September on a limited basis by appointment only while most of our activity continues virtually.

Launch of the Six Priorities
01
COVID-19 Recovery
BY MARIA CILENTI, SENIOR POLICY COUNSEL
& MARY MARGULIS-OHNUMA, POLICY COUNSEL
As the pandemic descended on New York in full force in March and the city went into lockdown, the New York City Bar Association shifted to operating fully remotely while simultaneously taking quick action to address numerous logistical, due process, and humanitarian issues facing lawyers, clients, the legal system, and the courts.

Jails and Prisons
In March, within days of the declared state of emergency in New York City and New York State, the City Bar issued a statement urging immediate steps to reduce prison and jail populations to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus among incarcerated people, corrections officers, and prison staff. The following week, the City Bar issued guidance for practitioners setting forth legal authority to release certain categories of incarcerated persons from local, state, and federal jails and prisons to prevent further spread of the virus. We also sent a letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo urging him to implement an immediate, one-time review of all elderly or infirm people currently serving sentences in New York State’s prisons and to consider sentence commutations for as many of them as possible, on an individual basis and subject to public safety concerns.

Launch of the Six Priorities
01
COVID-19 Recovery
BY MARIA CILENTI, SENIOR POLICY COUNSEL
& MARY MARGULIS-OHNUMA, POLICY COUNSEL
As the pandemic descended on New York in full force in March and the city went into lockdown, the New York City Bar Association shifted to operating fully remotely while simultaneously taking quick action to address numerous logistical, due process, and humanitarian issues facing lawyers, clients, the legal system, and the courts.

Jails and Prisons
In March, within days of the declared state of emergency in New York City and New York State, the City Bar issued a statement urging immediate steps to reduce prison and jail populations to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus among incarcerated people, corrections officers, and prison staff. The following week, the City Bar issued guidance for practitioners setting forth legal authority to release certain categories of incarcerated persons from local, state, and federal jails and prisons to prevent further spread of the virus. We also sent a letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo urging him to implement an immediate, one-time review of all elderly or infirm people currently serving sentences in New York State’s prisons and to consider sentence commutations for as many of them as possible, on an individual basis and subject to public safety concerns.

02
Access to Justice
by Cheryl Lopez, Communications & Development Manager, City Bar Justice Center

Leveraging Pro Bono to Mitigate the Pandemic
In March 2020, when the pandemic swept through New York City, the City Bar Justice Center moved swiftly to a remote legal services model to continue serving clients during a time of unprecedented need. It also provided disadvantaged New Yorkers with a legal lifeline through the launch of three COVID-19 pro bono initiatives: the Legal Hotline COVID-19 Expansion, the Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project’s Small Business Remote Legal Clinic, and the Planning & Estates Law Project’s remote legal services for frontline healthcare workers. Within a few months, staff had recruited and trained over 1,000 attorneys who provided over 5,600 clients with critical legal assistance during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis through these initiatives. In addition to those generous volunteers, a fierce cohort of law firm and corporate legal departments partnered with the Justice Center to produce online trainings and education on unemployment, small business aid, and remote notarization protocols.

02
Access to Justice
by Cheryl Lopez, Communications & Development Manager, City Bar Justice Center

Leveraging Pro Bono to Mitigate the Pandemic
In March 2020, when the pandemic swept through New York City, the City Bar Justice Center moved swiftly to a remote legal services model to continue serving clients during a time of unprecedented need. It also provided disadvantaged New Yorkers with a legal lifeline through the launch of three COVID-19 pro bono initiatives: the Legal Hotline COVID-19 Expansion, the Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project’s Small Business Remote Legal Clinic, and the Planning & Estates Law Project’s remote legal services for frontline healthcare workers. Within a few months, staff had recruited and trained over 1,000 attorneys who provided over 5,600 clients with critical legal assistance during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis through these initiatives. In addition to those generous volunteers, a fierce cohort of law firm and corporate legal departments partnered with the Justice Center to produce online trainings and education on unemployment, small business aid, and remote notarization protocols.

03
Criminal Justice Reform
BY Mary Margulis-Ohnuma, Policy Counsel

Despite the COVID-19 public health crisis (and, in part, because of it), the New York City Bar Association’s criminal committees have been hard at work addressing criminal justice reform issues on multiple fronts. While these efforts focused on the pandemic in the spring, new (and not so new) issues came crashing into focus in the late spring and early summer.

03
Criminal Justice Reform
BY Mary Margulis-Ohnuma, Policy Counsel

Despite the COVID-19 public health crisis (and, in part, because of it), the New York City Bar Association’s criminal committees have been hard at work addressing criminal justice reform issues on multiple fronts. While these efforts focused on the pandemic in the spring, new (and not so new) issues came crashing into focus in the late spring and early summer.

04
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Amidst Uncertainty, the Charge to Strengthen the Diversity Pipeline Remains Clear
The impact of the pandemic has been staggering for the communities served by the New York City Bar Association’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion. With Black and Brown students already in need of access to programming that would expose them to a range of career paths and mentorship opportunities, our signature pipeline program, the Thurgood Marshall Summer Law Internship, had to reduce its capacity substantially.

To continue to cultivate a sense of community among our network of volunteers and supporters throughout the summer, we issued a weekly Resource Roundup containing articles, webinars, and opportunities focused on racial justice education and COVID-19 topics.

04
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Amidst Uncertainty, the Charge to Strengthen the Diversity Pipeline Remains Clear
The impact of the pandemic has been staggering for the communities served by the New York City Bar Association’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion. With Black and Brown students already in need of access to programming that would expose them to a range of career paths and mentorship opportunities, our signature pipeline program, the Thurgood Marshall Summer Law Internship, had to reduce its capacity substantially.

To continue to cultivate a sense of community among our network of volunteers and supporters throughout the summer, we issued a weekly Resource Roundup containing articles, webinars, and opportunities focused on racial justice education and COVID-19 topics.

Diversity in the Legal Profession in Latin America

The Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice this year launched a pioneering program promoting diversity and inclusion in the Latin American legal profession for Indigenous and Afro-descendent lawyers: TotalLaw Prep. It redresses the historical and current imbalance in opportunity for legal education and professional advancement for a significant portion of the population of many countries in the region.

With Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico alone having 27 million Indigenous people, the region overall is eight percent Indigenous; however they constitute 14 percent of the poor and 17 percent of the extremely poor. Higher education is particularly imbalanced: in Brazil, only 0.6 percent of the Indigenous population participates vs. 10 percent of the White population; in Mexico, only one percent of Indigenous youth attend university, of whom one in five graduates; in Colombia, 3.5 percent of the Indigenous workforce are professionals vs. 10.5 percent overall.

05
Protection of the Rule of Law
The New York City Bar Association’s Task Force on the Rule of Law has been actively speaking out, often in collaboration with other Committees*, on a range of topics through reports, statements, and letters to Congress, Inspectors General, and the President of the United States.

During the fall, the Task Force put on a five-part series on Preserving the Rule of Law in an Age of Disruption, featuring many of today’s leading legal analysts and commentators. We are pleased to make all five sessions available on video. You can find them, as well as all of the Task Force’s reports, here.

05
Protection of the Rule of Law
The New York City Bar Association’s Task Force on the Rule of Law has been actively speaking out, often in collaboration with other Committees*, on a range of topics through reports, statements, and letters to Congress, Inspectors General, and the President of the United States.

During the fall, the Task Force put on a five-part series on Preserving the Rule of Law in an Age of Disruption, featuring many of today’s leading legal analysts and commentators. We are pleased to make all five sessions available on video. You can find them, as well as all of the Task Force’s reports, here.

06
Mental Health and Wellness
BY EILEEN TRAVIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
LAWYER ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
It’s no surprise that the pandemic has had a significant impact on the mental health and well-being of lawyers, judges, and law students, just as it has had on everyone else. Over the summer, referrals to the City Bar’s Lawyer Assistance Program increased, including from the Character & Fitness Committees in the First and Second Departments, as well as from the Attorney Grievance Committees in those Departments. We are honored to have such a productive collaboration with the courts, helping bar applicants with admission issues and lawyers whose mental health or substance use has resulted in misconduct find recovery and return to practice.
06
Mental Health and Wellness
BY EILEEN TRAVIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
LAWYER ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
It’s no surprise that the pandemic has had a significant impact on the mental health and well-being of lawyers, judges, and law students, just as it has had on everyone else. Over the summer, referrals to the City Bar’s Lawyer Assistance Program increased, including from the Character & Fitness Committees in the First and Second Departments, as well as from the Attorney Grievance Committees in those Departments. We are honored to have such a productive collaboration with the courts, helping bar applicants with admission issues and lawyers whose mental health or substance use has resulted in misconduct find recovery and return to practice.
Bret Parker headshot
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S
COLUMN
BY BRET PARKER
Welcome to the Virtual House of the Association
As our President, Sheila S. Boston, says in her introduction to this newsletter, the New York City Bar Association swung into action quickly and on many fronts when the pandemic hit the city with full force in March. We closed the iconic House of the Association on March 19 and pivoted to being a remote bar association (opening the building in September for limited, appointment-only access).
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933 – 2020)
Photo: Steven Trader, Law360
Justice Ginsburg with Twelfth Night cast, 2020 (Photo by Philip Furgang)
Justice Ginsburg with Twelfth Night cast, 2020 (Photo by Philip Furgang)
Whenever Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg visited the New York City Bar Association in recent years, the Great Hall’s triple-height ceilings could barely contain the collective enthusiasm of her fans packed wall-to-wall. The ten-foot double doors would open, and all attention in the room would be pulled toward the rather diminutive rock star entering the space as the anticipatory hush turned to standing ovation.

Justice Ginsburg’s powerful presence was rooted in her brilliant jurisprudence and in the cherished hopes that she represented for social equity, fairhanded justice, and progress. Her passing at such a trying time for these ideals has been difficult to bear. But Justice Ginsburg’s legacy is enduring. Her path-breaking legal career irrevocably broke barriers to gender equity in the legal profession and beyond, and she set a historic example in the pursuit of justice as a lawyer and on the bench.

Professional Development Workshop Series Defies Pandemic – Most Successful Ever
The Professional Development Workshop Series is the City Bar’s annual five-part series that provides attorneys with critical training to help them succeed as they transition into more senior roles. The Series offers a panoply of topics and trainings in lawyering skills, diversity, current ethics issues, and practice management programming. The Series’ topics, and frequently the faculty speakers, arise from annual forums with professional development directors from sponsoring firms, where we brainstorm and confer on best practices.

The series regularly fills the Meeting Hall, but just as we started the 2020 Series, the City Bar had to close its doors due to the pandemic. Thanks to the speakers’ ability to pivot to a virtual format, the 2020 Series went on, and City Bar members and lawyers from the sponsoring firms attended the final three programs of the Series in record numbers.

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EDITOR

Eric Friedman

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Eli Cohen

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Carrie Chatterson Studio

ADVERTISING

Arlene Bein 212.382.6685

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Bret Parker

44TH STREET NOTES

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Thanks for reading our Winter 2021 Edition!