COUNTYNEW YORK LAWYER January / February 2009 Visit us at www.nycla.org Volume 5 / Number 1 NYCLA’s Centennial Dinner INSIDE Honors Corporate In-House Counsel BLACK HISTORY MONTH GLORIA BROWNE-MARSHALL NYCLA’s Centennial year culminated with a gala dinner honoring 59 corporate TO RECEIVE IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT in-house counsel on December 16 at the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria JUSTICE AWARD - FEBRUARY 11 Hotel. The 1,200 attorneys, judges, govern- PG. 2 ment officials, members of academia and guests bade farewell to Hon. Judith S. Kaye, Chief Judge of the State of New York, the Dinner’s keynote speaker, who ETHICS INSTITUTE UPDATE was stepping down from the bench at the end of the year having reached the 70-year BY LEWIS TESSER retirement age. Judge Kaye was the first PG woman to occupy the State Judiciary's . 3 highest office when she was appointed in 1993 and became the longest-serving Chief Judge in the State’s history. DECONSTRUCTING THE The Dinner’s theme, “Honoring Corporate In-House Counsel,” acknowl- BAR EXAM edged and celebrated the invaluable work that corporate law departments have done PG. 6 on behalf of their clients and the legal sys- tem, as well as the leadership and dedica- tion of corporate General Counsels. “This evening is a wonderful conclusion Pictured are the Corporate Counsel who were honored standing with Hon. Judith S. Kaye 2008 FEDERAL (second row, far left) and NYCLA President Ann B. Lesk (second row, second from right). to NYCLA’s Centennial Celebration,” AND TATE EGISLATIVE declared Ann. B. Lesk, NYCLA President. the only requirement for membership in the in turn will do their part to enable their S L “One hundred years ago, NYCLA was Association was admission to the bar.” employees to perform their civic respon- BY OLLIE OURKE formed with a revolutionary premise: that In her keynote address, Judge Kaye rec- sibility. Similarly, we look to our great M O’R ognized the critical importance of in-house in-house counsel for support with pro counsel: bono services for the needy, especially in AND ALANA SLIWINSKI At NYCLA’s first Annual Dinner, “...[O]ver the years I have learned that these difficult times when legal services PG. 10 held on June 4, 1908, at the Hotel Astor in-house corporate counsel, as well as can make all the difference, whether with (located on 44th Street and Broadway), their outside counterparts, are valued foreclosures, or evictions, or in family collaborators for the courts. matters, or with myriad other problems.” the honoree was Hon. David Leventritt, RACTICE OF AW ERIES who had just retired from the New York Indeed, in every crevice of our court P L S system there is evidence of our vital part- William Nelson Cromwell Awardee Supreme Court to go into private prac- NEWLY EXPANDED tice. Judge Leventritt was elected vice nership with the corporate community, in NYCLA’s William Nelson Cromwell president of NYCLA the following year particular, our two-way relationship with Award, which recognizes a member of the PG. 7 and served until 1912. The Hotel Astor in-house counsel. I think of our prized New York bar for "unselfish service to the was demolished in 1967 and, in its place, jury system, our own efforts to make jury profession and the community" and is the One Astor Plaza, a 50-story office tower, service less burdensome all around, Association’s highest award, was presented TABLE OF was built. including minimizing inconvenience to to Richard H. Walker, Global General CONTENTS corporate employers, expecting that they (See Centennial Dinner, Page 15) Are You a Lawyer Who Sells? . .5 Black History Month Event . .2 A MESSAGE FROM THE NYCLA PRESIDENT Book Review . .11 Centennial Book . .2 Centennial Dinner . .1 Ann B. Lesk Centennial Dinner Photos . .8 & 9 The election of President Barack Maryland Law School. Instead, he went to Centennial Dinner Speeches . .14 Obama makes this a very poignant Black Howard University Law School, whose Events Calendar . .2 History Month. It is particularly appropri- dean, Charles Hamilton Houston, shaped CLE Programs . .4 ate at this inflection point to remember the Marshall’s legal career. Marshall CLE Tech Programs . .11 architect of the legal struggle to end “sep- described his law school experience as Deconstructing the Bar Exam . .6 arate but equal” institutions: Thurgood follows: Edith I. Spivack Awards . .2 Marshall, who was a member of NYCLA “Harvard was training people to join Ethics Hotline . .15 for many years. In 1991, NYCLA con- big Wall Street firms. Howard was Foreign & International Law Committee 6 ferred Honorary Membership on him to teaching lawyers to go out and go in Going Solo . .10 mark his retirement from the Supreme court. Charlie’s phrase was “Social Library Notes . .11 Court. After President Lyndon Johnson Engineer.” To be a part of the commu- Meet NYCLA’s Newest Board Member 3 nominated Marshall to the Supreme Court nity. And have the lawyer to take over Message from the Director in 1967, Newsweek wrote: “In three the leadership in the community.” of the CLE Institute . .4 decades he has probably done as much to Marshall would carry this philosophy Message from the President . .1 transform the life of his people as any all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1933, Message from the Director of the Negro alive today, including Nobel laure- he graduated from law school and opened NYCLA Ethics Institute . .3 ate Martin Luther King.” his own law office in Baltimore. In his Musicians from Marlboro . .12 Marshall was born in Baltimore in first major case, he successfully sued the New Benefit . .4 1908. Marshall said, “The only thing dif- University of Maryland Law School to NYCLA Debuts Logo . .3 ferent between the South and Baltimore admit an African-American graduate of Past Events . .13 was trolley cars. They weren’t segregated. Amherst College. After three years, Power of a Statement of Facts . .12 Everything else was segregated.” After Marshall followed Charles Houston to Practice of Law Series . .7 graduating from Lincoln University in New York, to work in the NAACP’s Public Policy Developments . .10 Pennsylvania, Marshall was denied national office. Two years later, Houston Substance Abuse Hotline . .15 admission to the all-white University of (See Message From The President, Page 12) 2008 Federal and State Round Up . .10 2 January / February 2009 / The New York County Lawyer EVENTS CALENDAR Black History Month Reception: Events are subject to change; please check the Association’s website, Gloria Browne-Marshall to www.nycla.org, for schedule changes and additions. Receive Ida B. Wells-Barnett _________________________________ 14 Vesey Street Awardees: Jessica Neuwirth, president February and founder of Equality Now, and Taina Justice Award on February 11 Bien-Aimé, executive director of In honor of Black History Gloria J. Browne- SPECIAL EVENT: IDA B. WELLS- Equality Now Month, NYCLA and the Marshall BARNETT JUSTICE AWARD Sponsor: NYCLA’s Women’s Rights Metropolitan Black Bar Gloria J. Browne- RECEPTION Committee Association will present the Marshall’s fields of scholar- Wednesday, February 11 BY INVITATION ONLY AND seventh annual Ida B. Wells- ship include constitutional 6:00 PM NYCLA MEMBERS Barnett Justice Award to law and racial justice/civil Place: NYCLA Home of Law – 14 RSVP: [email protected] and write Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, rights law, international Vesey Street ‘March 18 Reception’ in the Subject line. author of Race, Law, and human rights and child advo- Awardee: Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, (For more information, please refer to the American Society: 1607 to the cacy. Before joining the fac- author of Race, Law, and American article on this page.) Present and associate profes- ulty at John Jay College, Society: 1607 to the Present, associate Gloria J. Browne- sor of Constitutional Law at Marshall Professor Browne-Marshall professor of Constitutional Law at John John Jay College of Criminal worked with the NAACP Jay College of Criminal Justice Justice, on Wednesday, February 11. The Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Sponsors: NYCLA and the Metropolitan Post Your Job award ceremony will take place at the and taught at Vassar College. She is the Black Bar Association NYCLA Home of Law beginning at 6:00 executive director/founder of The Law and BY INVITATION ONLY AND FOR Openings On PM. The award is named in honor of Ida Policy Group, Inc. She previously chaired MEMBERS OF NYCLA AND MBBA B. Wells-Barnett, an African-American the International Human Rights RSVP: [email protected] and write ‘Feb. NYCLA.org – civil rights advocate who adamantly Committee of the American Bar 11 Reception’ in the Subject line. fought against segregation and in support Association. She currently serves on the (For more information, please refer to the At No Cost! of women’s rights. Hon. Pam Jackman Board of the Women's City Club of New article on this page.) Brown, the Supervising Judge of the Civil York City and as secretary of the board of Are you looking for a qualified Court of the City of New York, is the pro- Planned Parenthood of New York City. A SPECIAL EVENT: JUDICIAL lawyer to fill a position? NYCLA gram chair for this event. (See Black History Month, Page 7) RECEPTION HONORING will post your job on its Members- NEWLY ELECTED, APPOINTED, Only website, making it visible to RE-ELECTED AND RE-APPOINTED over 10,000 attorneys and law stu- JUDGES dents. Simply email your job descrip- Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) Thursday, February 26 tion, including instructions on how to Ida B. Wells, the daughter of slaves, was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi and 5:45 PM apply (please send as an attachment, went on to become a teacher, newspaper editor, journalist, orator, suffragist and anti- Place: NYCLA Home of Law – preferably in PDF format), to: lynching crusader.