Election Day Message from City Bar President Sheila S. Boston

To my beloved New York City Bar Association colleagues and legal community across the nation:

I write to you at the end of a challenging election season. I cannot tell you for whom to vote, but I do urge you to vote if you have not done so already. It is your civic duty. And if you are a lawyer, you are one of the vanguards of our democracy and the rule of law; it is our obligation to set the bar high in all we do in service to our nation.

My message is as simple as the oath we all took as lawyers, as officers of the courts where we practice or over which we preside, or as elected or appointed officers of our state and federal government: we are pledged to respect and enforce the rule of law without bias or favor to any litigant and to defend the laws and Constitutions (of both our nation and our states) so that our nation remains one governed by law and the democratic processes enshrined in those Constitutions. Whatever the pressures from clients, public officials or our own political preferences, or whether we live in a so-called “red” state or “blue” state, our role as lawyers must never serve to undermine the bedrock electoral processes on which our democracy rests.

As President of the New York City Bar Association, I am so very proud of my local legal community (#BarOfHope!) and our vigilant commitment to the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and our democratic institutions. Lawyers can – and should – freely and passionately debate and disagree, but ultimately, we must work together in order to confront the myriad of challenges ahead and to promote peace and civil discourse in our society. This work will continue after the election and I hope you will join me in supporting it. Let us march forward as one nation, and may the healing begin!