Remarks By Matthew Diller Upon Becoming President of the New York City Bar Association

First, I thank Muhammad for his superb leadership at a critical moment for our profession and our nation.  He has spoken with clarity and force in defense of our profession, our democratic institutions and the rule of law.  He has ensured that this great association deploys its energy and expertise to meet the moment.  Muhammad joins a distinguished line of City Bar presidents who embody the best in our profession, some of you are here today.  I would like to acknowledge Cary Dunne, Susan Kohlmann and John Feerick.   I thank you all for your service to our Association and our profession. Collectively, you set a very high bar for any incoming president of this association and i will do my best to live up to this tradition.

I also want to thank Bill Russell, officers and members of the board who are completing their terms.  Please rise so we can acknowledge you.  Thank you for your service.   I congratulate and thank Eileen Travis as she steps down as founding director of the City Bar’s Lawyer Assistance Program.  I am honored that Joe Landau, the dean of Fordham Law is here with us, as well as Dean emeritus John Feerick.  Dean Feerick hired me as a law professor more than 30 years ago and is a source of inspiration to me as well as great mentor and friend.

To Bret Parker and the superb City Bar staff – I am in awe of how much you all accomplish with limited resources and look forwarding to working closely with you.

I would like to acknowledge my partner in life, Kit Kennedy.  We started on our pathway in law together, graduating from law school a year apart.  I admire and love you beyond measure. Along the way, we acquired two wonderful sons, Michael and Peter, as well as Michael’s wife, Carrie Plover.  Michael is  here with us this evening.  Both he and Carrie are lawyers serving low income and marginalize clients, upholding our profession’s highest values.   I want to thank my sister Wendy, who is also with us tonight.  Wendy, your kindness, concern for others and for our community, along with your boundless energy have been a model for me throughout my life.  I also think of my parents Leonard and Juliet Diller who provided me with unqualified love and support.

I will talk about some of the challenges of this moment and my priorities as I seek to build on Muhammad’s superb leadership.   Before I do so, I want to say a few words about why I have spent the past 30 plus years in legal education and why the City Bar is, for me, such a critically important organization.

I started my career at the Civil Division of The Legal Aid Society, an experience which has shaped my outlook on our society, our legal system and on our profession.  As a Legal Aid lawyer, I saw every day the injustices faced by members of our community who have the deck stacked against them.  I saw the impossible choices they faced, trapped between government programs more designed to punish than assist, the tremendous demands of scarce low wage jobs and the challenges of raising children on top of it all.  I admired the perseverance of so many of our clients.  I also saw how the assistance of dedicated and skilled lawyers could make a vast difference.  The work of lawyers can be the difference between housing and homelessness, family stability and separation and between deportation and residency.

I also saw that how we lawyers approach our work makes a vast difference.  Creative and committed lawyers can transform outcomes in situations that at first appear hopeless. The skills and, equally importantly, the outlook that lawyers bring with them into the profession is vitally important.

We lawyers also have major roles to play in shaping the systems that our clients deal with – our laws and our system of justice.  Our privileged role, comes with responsibilities – in particular a responsibility to question the status quo — to challenge ourselves, our profession and our legal system to do better.

I have spent more than three decades in legal education because I believe that by starting new lawyers out on the right foot, we can set them up to be the kind of lawyers who make a difference – both for their clients and for our legal system — while at the same time launching fulfilling and successful careers.  We spend a lot of time in law school not simply teaching legal doctrine and analysis but also seeking to impress on students a large vision for who they can be as lawyers and the difference they can make for clients and the community.

But once they leave our law schools, lawyers need a space that enables them to renew and deepen this vision – and that provides means to act on it – a vehicle that reminds them they are part of a profession with shared values and a common mission.  That is where the New York City Bar Association comes in.  The Association lifts lawyers out of their daily work and enables them hone their skills and to deploy their talent, insights and passion toward the greater public good.

I started with the recognition that Muhammad has been our leader in a critical moment. That moment has not passed — it has only intensified.  As we celebrate our 250th year as an independent nation, our profession, our legal system, and our democracy continue to be under intense strain.  Our democracy was forged during the founding era, reconceived during the Civil War and Reconstruction, reinvented during the progressive era and New Deal, and renewed during the 1960s and 70 with the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war and Watergate.   Each of these periods of transformation broadened our democracy. Each has brought us closer to realizing the ideals so eloquently set forth 250 years ago.

We are at another pivotal moment where the institutions we have built over the past two and a half centuries are once again being fundamentally reshaped.  Our political system is under strain from polarization, disinformation and growing distrust of institutions.  Rather than focusing on expanding rights and opportunities for those who have been excluded, our nation is erecting new barriers.  Rather than aiding those in need, we are withdrawing the inadequate assistance that we had provided.  Rather than cherishing our freedom of expression, people now look over their shoulders wondering whether they will be punished for their beliefs or political views.  Rather than preserving our fragile environment, we are rapidly unwinding the environmental protections that have led to so much progress over the last half century.  And rather than drawing on our civil rights laws to further the cause of equality, our government is using them as tools to reinforce racial hierarchy.

Our institutions– long the envy of the world — are under attack — our universities, our centers of scientific research, our museums, and our arts organizations are in peril.  Our standing in the world as a beacon of democracy and law is tarnished as we launch attacks without legal justification.  Newcomers to our nation — including children, pregnant women and the elderly — are hunted in the streets and imprisoned without recourse.

All of this paints a dire picture.  But the future remains unwritten.  American democracy has a deep reservoir of resilience.  How we respond to these challenges will make a critical difference.

Against this backdrop, let me turn to our profession and our part in this story.  We have long viewed ourselves as having a special relationship to our democratic institutions and processes – by virtue of our knowledge and training in the architecture of our democracy and our critical role in shaping and effectuating our laws.  Above all, we are responsible for the rule of law in this nation.  Every day, in thousands of settings across the entire country, lawyers explain to clients the rights that law confers and what the law requires of them.  Every time a legal services lawyer tells a client that she has a right to a habitable apartment and explains how to assert that right, the rule of law is strengthened.  Every time a lawyer helps a corporate client navigate complex transactions within the bounds of the law, the rule of law is effectuated. Every time a prosecutor seeks justice and is matched by a defense lawyer who puts the government to its proof, the rule of law is upheld.

Lawyers are the ones who are uniquely charged with raising a red flag when decision makers contemplate actions that violate laws or transgress on the rights of others.  Our rules of conduct charge us with the responsibility to say what the law requires, even when others don’t want to hear it.  As lawyers, the rule of law is our bread and butter, our mother’s milk.

Upholding the rule of law through client representation is vital.  But it is not enough.  Our legal system and our democracy need more from us than the able representation of clients, as critical as that is.  If our institutions are to endure, we must buttress them when they are imperiled.  And we need to work tirelessly to improve them.  For the promise of equal justice under law – which lies at the heart of our democracy– has never been fully realized — we are not even close.   The denial of equal justice is not someone else’s problem — it is our problem and our responsibility.

From its inception in 1870, this Association has been dedicated to fulfilling the promise of our democracy.  Founded to seek reform of a corrupt New York judiciary, it reflects the brilliance, energy and passion for justice among the lawyers of our great City.  The association is a vehicle by which lawyers can work together to fulfill our responsibility to the legal system within which we work and to our community and our nation.  We became lawyers to make a difference in the world.  That passion is what brought us to the profession in the first place.    This Association provides a pathway for more than 20,000 members to act on that passion, regardless of their station in the profession or field of practice.

And we are the New York City Bar Association.  New York is not just another city — it is the capital of the legal profession in our nation.  We have more lawyers per capita in New York than any other state by a wide margin. We are a center of corporate and financial law,  IP and media law.   We are also a center of public interest law, of criminal practice, of real estate law, of global practice and a myriad of other fields.  We are home to many of the nation’s largest law firms and major in-house law departments.  We are also home to thousands of small firms and solo practitioners.  We have large government law offices representing the federal government as well as our state and city.  The United Nations and other global institutions are headquartered here, on this island.

Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker Motley and Robert Carter  litigated the challenges to Jim Crow from LDF’s headquarters on West 43rd Street – about a block away from here.  About 4 blocks away, Ruth Bader Ginsberg fought for women’s equality at the ACLU’s national headquarters.  Reaching back, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and Gouverneur Morris got their start practicing law in the courts of our great City.   New York lawyers like William Evarts, this Association’s first president, Elihu Root, Charles Evans Hughes, Henry Stimson, Cyrus Vance and Bob Fiske continued this tradition of leadership.  And it continues to this day.

New York is both intensely local – comprised of a fabric of communities and neighborhoods – and global at the same time. Queens alone is one of the most diverse counties in our nation. A place where 120 languages are spoken and 47 percent of residents are foreign born —  New York brings the global and the local together.

New York lawyers are in a position to lead.  The astonishing culture of our City enriches us and fuels us.  Lawyers in this city practice law at the highest levels – of complexity, of ambition and of creativity — we are the cutting edge in so many ways.   We are well equipped to face the challenges that our legal system and our profession face today — if not us, then who?

Our Association’s 150 committees, councils and taskforces are hard at work striving to meet the moment — through learned reports, policy recommendations and public programs.   The Association runs vitally important pipeline programs designed to expand the range of talent, experiences and perspectives of those joining our profession.  The City Bar Justice Center provides critically needed legal services to many New Yorkers in need.  The Vance Center for International Justice works to protect human rights across the world.  The Lawyer’s Assistance Program supports and enhances the wellbeing of lawyers in our stressful profession.  The Association is a consistent voice for the values of our profession, our democracy and the rule of law.   We should be justly proud of the work that we do together through this great Association.

I have been granted the privilege of working with the Board to lead this organization for the next two years.   I would like to take a few minutes to outline some priorities for my tenure.

First, we need to maintain our focus on several key areas that Muhammad and other leaders have emphasized:  Speaking out and working to advance the rule of law in this perilous time is critically important.  This past year I have chaired the Taskforce on the Independence of Lawyers and Judges and worked closely with the Rule of Law Taskforce.  I have seen the importance of the City Bar’s work in addressing the threats to our democratic institutions and legal system.  We must continue this focus and broaden it so that a wider range of our committees are engaged in this work.

Two areas especially warrant our attention — the mistreatment of immigrants and threats to free and fair elections.    The rounding up and detention of men, women and children without legal process violates fundamental rights and causes untold human suffering.  It is a threat to all of our freedoms and it is essential that we confront this injustice.  Second, we must work to ensure the integrity of the upcoming mid-term elections against attempts to disenfranchise and intimidate voters or raise spurious challenges to electoral results.  As in the past, we will serve as a clearinghouse for our members to roll up their sleeves and get involved in the critical work of election protection, both here in New York and in areas where elections are hotly contested.

Another area that the City Bar has long championed that we must continue to focus on is access to justice.  New Yorkers who are unable to access our legal system to assert or defend their rights are, in effect, excluded from the rule of law.  I spoke earlier of the difference that lawyers can make at critical moments in people’s lives.  Yet far too often, our help is simply unavailable.  The “justice gap” remains enormous.

The City Bar has long been a leader in this cause- from the work of the City Bar Justice Center to our advocacy for funding for civil legal services.  We will continue these efforts.  We will also focus on innovation to make our justice system more accessible and more fair.  As important as we lawyers are, lawyers will never be able to meet all the needs.  We should be at the forefront of exploring, evaluating, recommending and supporting reforms that enable to the promise of our laws to reach everyone.

Third, the City Bar must continue leading the profession’s engagement with artificial Intelligence — helping lawyers understand its promise, confront its risks and ensure that these technologies strengthen rather than undermine our legal system.

All three of these areas — rule of law, access to justice and AI are subjects with which the City Bar is currently deeply engaged.  My goal is to support and advance this engagement.

I want to put one more issue on the table.  Let me take a few minutes to provide some context.   In my daily work, I have the joy of helping law students learn the traditions of our profession, the ways in which lawyers examine and solve problems and how to advocate forcefully, yet respectfully for clients.  As many of you may have read, the number of applicants to law schools this year and last year is at record breaking levels.  Young people are looking to the legal profession as a way that they can have an impact on issues that are fundamental to our society.  They want to make a difference in the world and they see law as a powerful and important means of doing so. They are moved by concern for the state of our democracy and our institutions. They see the staggering levels of inequality in our society and they want to keep the American dream alive.

When they get to law school they find a complicated landscape.  They see examples of lawyers who make great sacrifices to represent clients in need, to champion constitutional rights, and to speak out against injustice.  But they also see lawyers participating in conduct that undermines our democracy and institutions.

The vast majority of the students I teach will become members of the New York Bar (and hopefully of this Association).  When I speak to them about their image of the profession in New York, I have sensed a shift over time. they are less likely to view private practice in our City as a way of doing well by doing good and more likely to perceive the large law firms where many will work as simply large business enterprises. There is no doubt that many lawyers in our City’s large firms continue to engage in important pro bono work, to serve on boards of nonprofits and civic organizations, or contribute time and energy to this Association or other professional  groups. (And some do all of these things).  The biographies of my predecessors in leadership positions in the City Bar makes this abundantly clear. Yet there is a sense that the ethos of public service does not burn as brightly today as in past generations.  This year, in the wake of the Trump administration’s unlawful threats against law firms,  the image of large law practice in New York was hit particularly hard.

This erosion in image is accompanied by larger trends in society — declining memberships in all kinds of civic associations – from alumni engagement with universities to memberships in bar organizations.  It has been 25 years since Robert Putnam wrote Bowling Alone warning of America’s declining attachment to communal activities.  Since the book was published, the rise of online activity and the COVID epidemic have both fueled this trend.  The New York Times recently ran an article about how more billionaires are withdrawing from Warren Buffet’s Giving Pledge than are signing up.

This state of affairs presents the City Bar with an extraordinary opportunity: to demonstrate that lawyers remain committed not only to clients and commerce, but also to the public good by working with low income and marginalized communities in our City, by deploying our legal skills to help work through solutions to the challenges we face as a society,  by building bridges and creating dialogue in our polarized time and to helping to educate the public about the importance and urgency of protecting the culture and institutions of our democracy.

Toward this end, I will be reaching out to leaders in in our profession seeking to renew and deepen the commitment of New York’s lawyers. Of course, there are many ways in which lawyers can fulfill their public responsibilities and lawyers will choose different things depending on their interests.  But the City Bar serves as a commons — where lawyers of all kinds can come together, roll up their sleeves and fulfill the passion for justice that brought them to law in the first place.  I intended to place a major focus on spreading the word about this remarkable and unique organization with the goal of increasing our membership, particularly among young lawyers and engaging all lawyers in our work.

One final point – At the City Bar, no one bowls alone. We build community not only through the work we do together, but through our bar nights, the City bar chorus, chamber music programs, yoga, baseball outings and so on and so forth.  All of these activities enable lawyers to come together, build bonds and appreciate each other.  The ties that result enrich our lives.

I look forward to working with all of you and with the superb staff of the City Bar, led by Bret Parker.  Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have ideas to share and energy to contribute.