The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is a voluntary
bar association
A bar association is a professional association of lawyers as generally organized in countries following the Anglo-American types of jurisprudence. The word bar is derived from the old English/European custom of using a physical railing to separ ...
for the state of
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
. The mission of the association is to cultivate the science of
jurisprudence
Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...
; promote reform in the law; facilitate the administration of justice; and elevate the standards of integrity, honor, professional skill, and courtesy in the legal profession.
History
NYSBA was founded on November 21, 1876 in
Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...
, and then incorporated on May 2, 1877 by an act of the state legislature. Its first president was
David B. Hill
David Bennett Hill (August 29, 1843October 20, 1910) was an American politician from New York who was the 29th Governor of New York from 1885 to 1891 and represented New York in the United States Senate from 1892 to 1897.
In 1892, he made an u ...
.
Elliott Fitch Shepard
Elliott Fitch Shepard (July 25, 1833 – March 24, 1893) was a New York lawyer, banker, and owner of the '' Mail and Express'' newspaper, as well as a founder and president of the New York State Bar Association. Shepard was married to Marg ...
helped found the association and, in 1884, was its fifth president.
Among the reforms to the legislation signed into law that had created the association was the removal of the restrictions on the admission of women to the practice of law.
In 1896, NYSBA proposed the first global means for settling disputes among nations, what is now called the
Permanent Court of Arbitration
The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that arise ...
at
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
.
Its protocol for legal ethics ensued from the NYSBA's 1909 adoption
[ of the 1908 ]American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
(ABA) Canons of Professional Ethics, which later evolved into the ABA Model Code of Professional Responsibility The American Bar Association Model Code of Professional Responsibility, created by the American Bar Association (ABA) in 1969, was a set of professional standards designed to establish the minimum baseline of legal ethics and professional responsib ...
.["Schaffer Law Library’s Guide on Professional Responsibility", Albany Law School, pages 1 & 3. Retrieved July 21, 2020.]
/ref> In 2001, the NYSBA adopted changes addressing multidisciplinary law practice. The U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
of New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
was the last state using the code for many years, long after all other states–except California and Maine–had adopted the Model Rules. On December 17, 2008, the administrative committee of the New York courts announced that it had adopted a heavily modified version of the Model Rules, effective April 1, 2009. The NYSBA has memorandums of understanding with the Seoul Bar Association and the Dai-Ichi Bar Association of Tokyo. Hank Greenberg, the association’s president and a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig
Greenberg Traurig is a multinational law firm founded in Miami in 1967. As of 2022, the Greenberg Traurig is the 9th largest law firm in the United States.
The firm has 43 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and ...
in Albany, announced the agreements in January 2020. New York's version of the Model Rules was created by adjusting the standard Model Rules to reflect indigenous New York rules that had been incorporated over the years into its version of the Model Code. Even though New York did not adopt the Model Rules verbatim, the advantage of adopting its overall structure is that it simplifies the professional responsibility training of New York lawyers, and makes it easier for out-of-state lawyers to conform their conduct to New York rules by simply comparing their home state's version of the Model Rules to New York's version.
The New York State Bar has sought legislation to simplify and update court procedures; advocates to raise judicial standards and to enhance voluntary cases; established systems for maintaining the integrity of the profession; and provides public education and legal services to the indigent. Today, NYSBA includes over 74,000 members, of whom 18,000 reside out of state.
Structure
The control and administration of the state bar is vested in the House of Delegates, the decision and policy-making body of the association. The house meets four times a year (January, April, June and November). Action taken by the House of Delegates on specific issues becomes official state bar policy.
The state bar's current structure includes 25 specialized substantive law sections, and more than 60 standing, special, and other committees.
New York Professional Responsibility Rules
On July 8, 2020, the NYSBA issued an ethics opinion authorizing New York lawyers to advise clients regarding compliance with New York's recreational marijuana law. The opinion also authorized New York lawyers to use marijuana for recreational purposes.
See also
*New York City Bar Association
The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...
*State bar association
A state bar association is a bar association that represents or seeks to represent the attorneys practicing law in a particular U.S. state. Their functions differ from state to state, but often include administration of the state bar examination fo ...
References
{{Authority control
American state bar associations
New York (state) state courts
Organizations established in 1876
1876 establishments in New York (state)
Organizations based in Albany, New York
501(c)(6) nonprofit organizations