It is a privilege to serve as president of the Federal Bar Council. Those were my first words as president, several weeks ago. The excellence, mentorship and commitment to the Rule of Law that have defined this organization for nearly 100 years are unmatched. And so are the opportunities the Council presents for members.
I am especially fortunate to begin as president when – thanks to my predecessors – this organization is stronger than ever. That status is remarkable, considering much has been written about the demise of membership organizations – including, specifically, bar organizations – as a society-wide trend exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, four years ago, an esteemed legal periodical published a series of articles about the challenges facing bar organizations and their decline. But that is not true of this organization. Thanks to all of you, the state of this organization is strong and it continues to be on an upward trajectory.
So what is the proof that we have never been stronger? Here are the facts, a few key performance indicators, if you will, many of which also help explain why we are thriving.
MAJOR EVENTS
Our major events continue to be fully subscribed. Our Thanksgiving Luncheon sells out perennially. Our Law Day Dinner is typically fully subscribed. And, despite law firms having become more parsimonious in recent years about paying for lawyers to attend conferences, our Fall Retreat and Winter Conference – back after a COVID-19 hiatus – are trending as popular as ever. The popularity of those gatherings speaks to the fact that the Federal Bar Council has always provided a uniquely powerful antidote to the realities that have led to numerous articles about the mental and emotional health challenges of practicing law. While taking time for oneself is important, so is actively participating in a community of encouragement, lifetime-learning, mentoring, professional mutualism and respect. Most of our members have attended the Thanksgiving Lunch or Law Day Dinner, but if you have not attended the Fall Retreat or Winter Conference, consider doing so. Overwhelmingly, those who attend these programs rave about them.
Likewise, our Inn of Court program – founded by John Siffert and Lee Richards 25 years ago – remains a wildly popular beacon of excellence and mentoring. The Inn’s sole purpose is mentorship and it provides an opportunity to be part of a legal community that stretches through time, treasures its history, touches greatness and manifests it. No doubt, participation requires dedication. Master lawyers and extraordinary judges work closely with junior lawyers to prepare creative, engaging, acclaimed monthly programs. To call these just “CLE programs” would be akin to calling Derek Jeter just a person who played baseball. My own experience with the Inn, which began at its inaugural meeting in 2000, often reminds me of advice given by a mentor years ago: This is the biggest legal market in the world; but if you get out of your office, get involved and attend things (in-person!!) . . . it becomes remarkably small. And over time the relationships you build will be instrumental in serving your clients. Our Inn has been blessed with a quarter century of leaders who embody this, and its pipeline of future leaders is equally robust.
Our First Decade Committee, chaired by Josh Bussen and Brachah Goykadosh, coordinates, among other things, our Brown Bag lunches, a series of small-group luncheons with judges who endeavor to remove the mystique often associated with those who wear a black robe, sharing personal, direct advice about practicing in the courts and about finding one’s path to career and personal satisfaction. Attending these lunches, I am reminded of the sage advice I received from another mentor many years ago about applying for clerkships: I promise you will be well-served by seizing any chance to sit with a federal judge for an hour of in-person conversation.
The First Decade Committee also collaborates with the Second Circuit Courts Committee, led by David Livshiz, to develop and run our aforementioned Fall Retreat. The schedule last fall included programs on artificial intelligence, voting rights, securities litigation and other topics. This fall’s retreat will be at Skytop Lodge in the Poconos, October 17-19. Mark your calendar, now. And mark it also to volunteer this spring to help with a program.
The Second Circuit Courts Committee plans numerous other activities, for example, hosting two series of enriching bi-monthly programs: the Legends of the Bar series and the Conversation with the Court series, the most recent of which included insights and wisdom from legendary First Amendment litigator Floyd Abrams and new Judge Dale Ho, respectively. Like all of our programs, these events are open to all members. Come to one. You will not regret it.
Our Program Committee, led by Celeste Koeleveld and Julian Brod, curates multiple other programs each month, ranging from practice-area specific subjects, to skills programs, to our annual Supreme Court Preview, all with panelists of incomparable excellence. And it conducts vital training programs for federal law clerks. Have an idea for a program? Speak up.
Our Bankruptcy Committee, chaired by Eric Fisher and Vincent Indelicato, hosts a growing number of programs. And its Summer Judge’s Reception at Tavern on the Green has quickly become wildly popular for not just the bankruptcy bar but also as a law firm summer associates event. Bring your summer associates this May.
This very publication – the Federal Bar Council Quarterly, led by our intrepid editor Bennette Kramer and now in its 32nd year – recently evolved to a fully digital publication, which not only allows readers to easily read, save, maintain and search its content, but also allows our staff and authors to share, link and promote content via all forms of social media and digital platforms. Write for it. Your resume will be very glad you did in a couple of years.
NEW TALENT
These are but a few examples of Council highlights and some activities by some of our committees. In short, we are invigorated with new talent. Our boards, committees and other leadership positions have steadily become infused with a new generation of diverse talent and vision. And I have asked each committee chair to cultivate a pipeline of future leaders by identifying those who presently “carry the water” or do the blocking and tackling of turning ideas into action, and who demonstrate excellence, mentoring and commitment to the elements of our mission, and thus who may be future leaders or co-chairs.
Given the foregoing, it may not be surprising that, for each of the past six years, under the visionary leadership of current Foundation President Seth Levine and his predecessor Sean Coffey, our Federal Bar Foundation successively has raised more funds than in each prior year. And that support has yielded remarkable programs advancing our mission. Each summer at courthouses throughout the circuit, teams of judges and lawyers under the inspiring service of Judges Joseph Bianco and Victor Marrero present engaging, accessible programs to educate adolescent students about civics, the cornerstone for the rule of law, via the Justice For All: Courts and the Community initiative and our Judge Robert A. Katzmann Civics Education Grant. During the school year, the Foundation likewise provides critical support to the Justice Resource Center’s courthouse visits program for young students. The Foundation also funds the Access to Counsel Trial Skills Training program, where renowned trial lawyers donate their time to personally train dozens of young lawyers preparing to try their first case in federal court for pro bono clients identified by the court as having claims meriting trial. And the Foundation, of course, continues to fund scholarships for law student interns in the Southern District of New York and Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorneys’ and Federal Defenders offices, as it has for decades.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
So what can you do to benefit from and contribute to this success? The answer is quite simple: If you participate in any of our programs or initiatives, recall how impactful it was for you to be invited by a senior lawyer or friend to come along to your first event. Do the same. There is nothing more powerful than having someone tap you on the shoulder and say “you should try this.” Those of us who have been doing this for a while can look back and see those inflection points in our careers and lives.If your membership has been more nominal or is of more recent vintage, take a step forward. Doing so involves some courage and investment. Each of us either personally, through our families or through some generous scholarship benefactor, is the product of some courageous investment of extraordinary resources so we could attend law school. The premise for that investment, regardless of its source, was a belief that you were worth the investment. That remains true; you are worth continued investment. To be sure, the experience of becoming more involved may be akin to what Jacob Riis observed about the stonecutter “hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” That investment will yield great benefits. You are worth it.