2001
Lawyers line up down 44th Street to volunteer to help victims and survivors of the 9/11 attacks. Some 3,000 attorneys received training.
The Association hosts the first-ever conference of the leaders of world city bars, sponsored by the Association, the City of London Law Society, the Paris Bar, and the Tokyo Bar. Participants include delegations from Madrid, Istanbul, Shanghai, Chicago, Montreal, Mexico City, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires and Toronto, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer delivered remarks.
The Association’s report “Inter Arma Silent Leges: In Times of Armed Conflict, Should Laws Be Silent? A Report on the President’s Military Order of November 13, 2001, Regarding Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism” argues that the presidential order establishing military commissions did not guarantee habeas relief and did not provide for judicial review of executive actions.
The Association issues the report “Marriage Rights of Same Sex Couples in New York.”
2002
Report regarding the legality and constitutionality of the President’s authority to initiate an invasion of Iraq concludes that the President is required under the Constitution to seek congressional authorization before undertaking a large-scale offensive attack on Iraq.
The Association issues its “Report on the Military Order of November 13, 2001 Regarding ‘Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism,” specifying the ways in which the Order violates the Constitution.
Delegations led by the Association’s Council on International Affairs visit Rwanda to help officials construct a competent and impartial justice system and a legal framework based on respect for the rule of law after the devastation of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
The Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice is founded.
2003The report “Taking Aim: New York State’s Regulation of Firearms and Proposals for Reform” provides overview of existing firearms regulation in New York and identifies areas in need of improved or additional regulation to make legally-owned firearms safer and limit the proliferation of illegal firearms.
Letter to the Department of Defense noting that detainees at Guantanamo have not been afforded the right to a formal determination of their status, if there is any doubt as to their status, under Army regulations.
Letter to Mayor Bloomberg urging him to oppose enforcement of immigration laws by the NYPD because such enforcement would discourage communication and cooperation with the immigrant community.
2004In the wake of problems with the U.S. Presidential election in 2000, a letter to the Joint States’ Legislative Conference Committee on HAVA (Help America Vote Act) provides comments on the procedures and criteria for permitting an election recount using a manual tabulation of the voter-approved paper recordings of votes.
The report “Torture by Proxy: International and Domestic Law Applicable to ‘Extraordinary Renditions’” by NYU Law School’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and the City Bar’s International Human Rights Committee, examines the secret program in which U.S. officials sent suspects to other countries for interrogation, aware that they would likely be subject to torture, and makes news with its sobering findings that the U.S. was illegally complicit in torture.
The Association issues a report, “Human Rights Standards Applicable to the United States Interrogation of Detainees,” after several military legal officers from the Judge Advocate General’s Corps told the International Human Rights Committee Chair they were concerned about potential human rights abuses in the treatment of Afghan detainees in the “War on Terror.”
The Association launches its Office for Diversity to formalize the City Bar’s work to diversify the profession. Since renamed the Office for Diversity & Inclusion, its work has included guidance at the law firm leadership level (e.g., with benchmarking studies and reports tracking progress of D&I efforts in law firms and corporations), mentoring and training for minority lawyers (e.g., Associate Leadership Institute) and pipeline programs for high school, college, and law school students.2006
Based on the experience of responding to the events of 9/11, the City Bar decided to consolidate its access-to-justice programs into a newly-formed City Bar Justice Center.
2007
City Bar President Barry Kamins addresses 700 lawyers who rallied on the steps of the New York Supreme Court in support of lawyers, judges and the rule of law in Pakistan.
The City Bar, along with the Empire State Pride Agenda, publishes the influential report “1,324 Reasons for Marriage Equality in New York State.”
2008
The City Bar issues report on “The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”
2009
The City Bar Justice Center makes the New York Times’s front page for exposing the lack of due process for immigrant detainees at the Varick Street Detention Facility.
2010Following a spate of state legislators found guilty of corruption-related crimes, the City Bar said that all New York State lawmakers, including attorney-legislators, should be required to disclose sources and amounts of outside income, including the identity of paying clients and a description of services rendered, with very limited exceptions. The report rested upon the City Bar’s conclusion that such disclosures were in the public interest and could be made without violating attorney-client privilege
2011
The City Bar hosts nearly two dozen state and city bar associations for a joint press conference to urge the New York legislature to allow same-sex couples to marry. Legislation granting this right is signed into law the next month.
2012Following Superstorm Sandy, the City Bar Justice Center, along with leaders of other bar associations and legal services organizations collaborated on providing pro bono legal services for those in hard-hit communities.
2013
The City Bar introduces its Virtual Law Firm Program, whereby members can meet with clients, receive correspondence and have their own 212 phone number answered at the City Bar.
The City Bar’s Task Force on New Lawyers in a Changing Profession issues report recommending fundamental changes in education and career focus for new lawyers.
The report “Creating Equal Access to Quality Health Care for Transgender Patients” recommends hospital policies to ensure equal access to health care for transgender patients, a group that faces significant barriers to equal, consistent and high-quality health care.2014
The City Bar launches its New Lawyer Institute to prepare new lawyers with the basic training they need to enter the workforce.
A City Bar statement, followed by a report the following year, calls for raising the age of criminal responsibility from 16-18 years of age. Enacted into law in 2018.
2015Formation of Task Force on Mass Incarceration
The City Bar announces the formation of a Task Force on Mass Incarceration and releases a report urging federal and state leaders "to make the reduction of mass incarceration a top priority."
2016Report in support of the One Day to Protect New Yorkers Act, to amend the penal law to reduce the maximum potential sentence for A misdemeanors by one day, which would have profound immigration consequences for many New Yorkers who otherwise may face deportation under federal laws that provide for deportation of individuals convicted of crimes for which a sentence of one year or longer may be imposed. Enacted into law in April 2019. (Reissued in 2018.)
In the wake of ABA’s passage of Resolution 107 at February 2016 mid-year meeting (which expanded the definition of diversity and inclusion to include all persons regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disabilities, and also encouraged all licensing and regulatory authorities that currently require mandatory continuing legal education (MCLE) to include, as a separate required credit, D&I CLE), City Bar spearheads support for standalone Diversity, Inclusion & Elimination of Bias CLE requirement in New York, gathering support from 13 signatory bar associations. • Effective Jan. 1, 2018, NYS CLE Board created a new category of CLE credit: Diversity, Inclusion and Elimination of Bias (D&I).
2016-2017Report and written testimony in support of a right to counsel in Housing Court for low-income NYC tenants subject to eviction, ejectment or foreclosure proceedings. Int. 214-A signed into law by the Mayor in 2017.
2017In a ribbon cutting ceremony, the City Bar dedicates a room to Judge Judith S. Kaye, who served as Chief Judge, New York State Court of Appeals, and who was an active member of the City Bar.
Statement in Support of the Department of Defense’s Directive and Associated Policies Permitting the Open Service of Transgender Service Members in the U.S. Military.
2018
Letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen urging them to rescind their respective Departments’ publicly announced policies of referring for criminal prosecution all persons allegedly attempting or effecting entry into the U.S. other than at a designated point of entry, including those seeking asylum.
The Association elects its first Latinx President – Roger Juan Maldonado.
Letter to U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees urging comprehensive hearings regarding Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security’s “zero tolerance” policy requiring criminal prosecution of all irregular entrants to the U.S.
“Federal Immigration Enforcement in NYS Courthouses: Recommendations.” Calling the increasing number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) civil arrests in and around New York State courthouses “a threat to the New York State court system’s ability to ensure access to justice and the state’s overall community-based public safety goals” and an undermining of the “values of due process and federalism enshrined in the U.S. Constitution as well as the New York Constitution,” City Bar underscores the danger that heightened immigration enforcement in court houses will cause immigrant litigants and witnesses to stop coming to court and thereby create a class of state residents who are denied access to the justice system, and that the state’s justice and court system will be hampered.
2019City Bar launches Barbara Paul Robinson Series, featuring leaders in the law sharing their life stories to inspire others in the profession.
City Bar issues report, “New York Needs Bail Reform.”
City Bar issues report “Sealing the Leaks: Recommendations to Diversity and Strengthen the Pipeline to the Legal Profession” from the City Bar’s Legal Education and Pipeline Task Force.
The City Bar Chorus makes its Carnegie Hall debut.Formation of Task Force on the Rule of Law – broadening and renaming 2006 Task Force on National Security and the Rule of Law to include actions that implicate the rule of law in our nation, especially actions that undermine the independence and authority of the courts and the duty of government officials to comply with the laws under which they exercise authority.
City Bar issues statement calling on Attorney General William Barr to recuse himself from Ukraine matters.
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