Susan J Kohlmann Nominated as President
Susan J. Kohlmann has been nominated as President of the New York City Bar Association. If elected, Kohlmann will succeed Sheila S. Boston as the Association’s 70th President. The election will take place at the City Bar’s annual meeting on May 17, 2022.
The City Bar also announced its Nominating Committee’s slate of officers and new members of its Board of Directors.
Kohlmann is Managing Partner of Jenner & Block’s New York office; a litigator in its Content, Media & Entertainment Practice; co-chair of its Trademark, Advertising and Unfair Competition Practice; a member of the Policy Committee, the firm’s governing body; chair of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee; and a member of its Pro Bono Committee. In addition to her extensive experience in jury and bench trials and arbitration proceedings, she has broad experience briefing and arguing appeals in the New York appellate courts and several federal circuit courts.
Clients seek Kohlmann’s counsel on a wide variety of complex matters, including copyright, trademark and trade secret disputes. She also has represented companies in various class action and other complex commercial matters. She has been recognized for her client advocacy and leadership by The American Lawyer, Chambers USA, Legal 500, Managing Intellectual Property, The National Law Journal, and New York Law Journal.
At the City Bar, Kohlmann recently completed a one-year term as a Vice President, and has served as chair of its Women in the Legal Profession Committee and its Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and as a member of its Nominating, Pro Bono and Legal Services, Lawyer’s Quality of Life, and Stimson Medal Committees.
Kohlmann maintains an active pro bono practice, in areas including reproductive and veterans’ rights. She serves as Chair of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and is a past chair and board member of Legal Services NYC.
Kohlmann received a BA from Yale University and a JD from Columbia University School of Law.
“I have been fortunate to have worked alongside great individuals at the New York City Bar Association while serving as vice president and on various committees during the course of my career, and I am honored now to be nominated as president of the City Bar,” said Kohlmann. “I look forward to working with the board of directors, committee leaders and staff to continue to develop programs and opportunities for our diverse legal profession in order to uphold the rule of law and provide access to justice in support of a fair society.”
Hon. Jonathan Lippman, Latham & Watkins LLP; Peter J.W. Sherwin, Proskauer Rose LLP; and Harlan Levy, Foley Hoag LLP, were nominated to serve one-year terms as the City Bar’s three Vice Presidents.
Lesley Horton Campbell, ICSC, currently serving on the Board, was nominated to serve as Association Secretary, and Thomas R. Slome, Cullen and Dykman LLP, was nominated to continue to serve as Association Treasurer.
The nominees for the Board of Directors’ Class of 2026 are Whytne J.V. Brooks, New York Life Insurance Company; Melissa Colón-Bosolet, Sidley Austin LLP; Philip Desgranges, The Legal Aid Society; Rossalyn K. Quaye, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.; and William Russell, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.
Rakhi Bahadkar-Rajpaul, Equitable Advisors, LLC, is nominated for the Board of Directors’ Class of 2025, and Michele Cerezo Natal, Mayer Brown, for the Class of 2024.
The Candidates were nominated by the City Bar’s Nominating Committee: John S. Kiernan, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (chair); Juan Arteaga, Crowell & Moring LLP; Jeanine Conley Daves, Littler Mendelson P.C.; Carmelyn Malalis; Hon. Andrea Masley, New York State Supreme Court; Hon. Rosalyn Richter, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP; and Alan Rothstein.
