The Association Medal

In May 1951, the Executive Committee resolved that the Association establish an award to be designated as the “Award of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York,” to be presented from time to time to a member of the New York Bar who has made exceptional contributions to the honor and standing of the bar in this community. A special committee was appointed to supervise the preparation of a design of a medal embodying such award, to recommend a method of presentation and also to recommend at what intervals the presentation of such awards should be reviewed.

The obverse of the medal bears an adaption of the Association’s Seal: A full-length figure of Athene in her special—and to the Greeks favorite—character of Polias, the guardian of the city, bearing a scroll in her right hand and a winged Victory in her left. The figure is a slightly idealized reproduction of the statue now in the Villa Albani, near Rome. On either side of the main figure is a legend from the fourth book of Aristotle’s Politics, concluding a sentence which reads, “Where the laws are not enforced there can be no free state, for it is essential that the law be supreme.” At the foot of the figure is inscribed the characteristic title “Polias,” and around the seal is the corporate name of the Association, with the date of its organization, 1870. The medal is the work of the American sculptor, C.L. Schmitz.

The Association Medal has been awarded to:

Alan Rothstein
Awarded July 28, 2015

Hon. Leonard B. Sand
Awarded April 3, 2014

Hon. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Awarded February 13, 2013

Hon. Judith S. Kaye
Awarded December 9, 2008

Robert B. Fiske
Awarded March 15, 2007

Hon. Robert M. Morgenthau
Awarded March 15, 2007

John D. Feerick
Awarded March 6, 2006

Robert B. McKay
Awarded Posthumously, October 24, 1990

Archibald R. Murray
Awarded Posthumously November 27, 2001

Arthur Liman
Awarded Posthumously May 18, 1999

Fern Schair
Awarded November 18, 1997

Robert M. Kaufman
Awarded May 23, 1995

Herbert Wechsler
Awarded March 19, 1985

Cyrus R. Vance
Awarded March 19, 1985

Oscar M. Ruebhausen
Awarded March 19, 1985

Hon. John J. McCloy
Awarded March 16, 1982

Hon. Francis T.P. Plimpton
Awarded March 18, 1980

Paul B. De Witt
Awarded November 17, 1970

Louis M. Loeb
Awarded March 17, 1970

Orison S. Marden
Awarded May 21, 1968

Hon. Bernard Botein
Awarded October 29, 1963

Whitney North Seymour
Awarded December 8, 1959

Harrison Tweed
Awarded May 10, 1955

Charles C. Burlingham
Awarded June 29, 1953

Hon. Robert P. Patterson
Awarded Posthumously, March 11, 1952