History of the New York City Bar Association
Encyclopedia
The New York City Bar Association (formerly the Association of the Bar of the City of New York) was founded in 1870 as a voluntary professional organization for lawyers in New York City
. It is the country’s oldest bar association
, and with over 20,000 members, continues to be one of its largest and most influential.
, the reputation of New York’s legal profession was in decline. The New York state constitutional convention of 1846 had eliminated all property qualifications and significantly lowered educational requirements for admission to the bar, and had changed the state’s system of choosing judges from an appointive to an elective one. By the 1860s in many districts restrictions on practicing law were minimal, and judges were too fearful of a popular electoral backlash to raise them significantly, resulting in a glut of under-qualified lawyers in the city’s courts.
In addition, the profession was marred by a series of high-profile scandals and allegations of corruption linking prominent New York lawyers to the politicians of Tammany Hall
and the questionable business practices of powerful industrialists. The Erie War
, a two-year legal struggle over control of the Erie Railroad
between shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt
and Erie board members Daniel Drew
, Jay Gould
, and Jim Fisk, was one of the most notorious incidents. The court battle implicated some of New York’s leading lawyers and judges in widely criticized instances of corruption, vote buying, and obstructionist legal tactics. Respected lawyers retained by both parties—including Charles O'Conor
and the noted legal reformer David Dudley Field—manipulated a confusing code of civil procedure to delay litigation and worked to appoint friends and political allies as receivers
of valuable railroad stock, while other lawyers openly lobbied to bribe the New York State Legislature on their clients’ behalf. New York judge George C. Barnard, before whom many of the arguments were heard, and who was a known associate of the infamous William “Boss” Tweed, was later impeached on corruption charges in part for rulings made during the case.
The spectacle was the catalyst for widespread calls to regulate the legal profession. Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
, lawyer and grandson of John Quincy Adams
, criticized the affair in the American Law Review as an “extraordinary perversion of the process of law,” and The New York Times
called for a legal professional organization similar to those that already existed in London
and Liverpool
. “Such an organization is sadly needed in this City,” the Times editorialized on June 20, 1869, “and if the respectable members consult their professional interests and expectations they will form one at an early date.” In December 1869, prominent lawyers began circulating a “call for organization” of the legal profession in order to “sustain the profession in its proper position in the community, and…enable it to serve the public.”
, a well-known lawyer who had successfully defended President Andrew Johnson
during his impeachment hearings and later served as Attorney General, was elected the Association’s first president, a post which he would hold for nine years. Samuel Tilden, a national political leader and an outspoken critic of government corruption, was elected vice president.
The Association quickly lent its public support to government reform in New York and its leading members played pivotal roles in many of the important reform battles of the time, including a large-scale corruption investigation of Tammany Hall
in the 1870s. Tilden and other powerful members of the Association, including Joseph H. Choate, Henry Nicoll
, Wheeler H. Peckham, and Charles O’Conor, who was appointed special state attorney in the investigation, were primarily responsible for obtaining convictions against "Boss" Tweed and other Tammany Hall associates, including Mayor A. Oakley Hall
, for the embezzlement of an estimated $75 million to $200 million (though the investigation and trial were never officially endorsed by the New York City Bar). In 1873, the Bar’s Committee on the Judiciary, under Peckham’s leadership, submitted a report on judicial corruption to the legislature that led to the removal of four notorious New York judges: Albert Cardozo
, John McCunn
, D.P. Ingraham, and George Barnard.
against Rutherford B. Hayes
, while Evarts left to become Secretary of State
in the new administration and Nicoll and O’Conor retired amidst scandals surrounding their private practices.
In the ensuing years, the Association largely receded from political life, and concerned itself with more administrative projects: the reform of admissions standards for the bar and, in 1877, the establishment by Association members of the New York State Bar Association
. The Association’s main substantive victory in these years was to successfully lobby the New York State Legislature to defeat David Dudley Field’s codification of civil law, a measure which many—especially Association president and Field rival James Coolidge Carter —opposed on ideological grounds.
In 1896, the Association moved into its current landmark House
on West 44th Street, which it commissioned from the prominent architect Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz.
. As a result, those lawyers interested in bipartisan government reform became more involved in organizations such as the Citizens’ Union and the Good Government Club, and the Association’s activities increasingly looked inward.
led the Association in public opposition to a decision by the New York State Legislature to expel five assemblymen elected in 1919 on the Socialist Party
ticket. The Association published a resolution condemning the Assembly’s decision on the front page of several leading national newspapers and, in the following days, sent a committee of five, headed by Hughes, to the Legislature in Albany
where they confronted the Speaker, Thaddeus Sweet, and distributed letters of protest. The event made national news, earned the Association an unprecedented national following, and helped overturn a public image of the Bar as politically disengaged.
When Hughes became President of the Association in 1927 he worked to increase both the Association’s relationship with the public and its role in legal reform, establishing a series of radio broadcast lectures entitled The Fundamentals of the Law and playing a leading role in the regulation of frivolous personal injury lawsuits and the reform of the state’s bankruptcy laws. Hughes’ successor, Charles Burlingham
, with the cooperation of then-Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Judge Samuel Seabury
, led the Association a year later in a city-wide investigation of judicial corruption and court fixing under Tammany mayor Jimmy Walker
which led to indictment of two judges and the disbarment
of sixteen attorneys in 1930. Seabury, himself chair of the Association’s judiciary committee and later its president, went on in the 1930s to lead major investigations that led to the disbarment of New York County District Attorney
Thomas Crain and the removal from office of Walker himself, though the Association itself played only a supporting role in the investigations.
In 1937 women were made eligible for membership in the Association, and by the late 1930s, the Association’s membership had more than doubled since its low point two decades earlier.
, the Association’s activities were limited due to the employment of many members in the armed services and the United States War Department and the general priority given to the war effort. However, in the years immediately following the war membership again grew under the leadership of president Harrison Tweed
. Tweed, who was a grandson of William Evarts (and no relation to “Boss” Tweed), made significant gains in membership by promoting social activities and also largely reorganized the Association into its current form, appointing a permanent executive director and establishing rotating membership for the Bar’s growing number of committees.
The Association vocally opposed the investigations of Senator Joseph McCarthy
and the House Un-American Activities Committee
into suspected communist affiliations of government employees. When the American Bar Association
, inspired by the Smith Act
, passed a resolution in 1950 recommending that states require loyalty oaths of all lawyers admitted to the bar, the New York City Bar Association soundly defeated a similar resolution proposed by several members. Some members of the Association, including president Robert P. Patterson
and his successor, Whitney North Seymour
, were openly critical of loyalty oaths and of the tactics of McCarthy, and president Allen T. Klots
began an Association initiative to provide legal representation to government employees questioned under the new loyalty programs. The Association was also a prominent critic of the controversial Bricker Amendment
, intended to limit the power of the President to enter into foreign treaties. Throughout the McCarthy era, several special committees of the Bar published reports that were harshly critical of the government’s loyalty and security programs, culminating in a national study of the legal issues raised by loyalty investigations led by president Dudley Bonsal.
Throughout much of the late 1950s and 1960s, the Association continued to improve its organization, acquiring an administrative and library staff of 120 by 1969 and gradually increasing the number of specialized committees it supported. It also invested considerable energy in the reorganization of the legal system. The Association published several landmark studies in these years, including a report on privacy entitled Privacy and Freedom by its Committee on Science and the Law and a groundbreaking report on family court by a special committee chaired by Oscar M. Ruebhausen
, many of whose recommendations were later adopted.
to speak at a time when the American Bar Association
was still resistant to civil rights legislation, and sponsoring several committees which supported the legality of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
. The Association itself became more egalitarian in these years, electing its first female member of the executive committee in 1972 and democratizing access to the Bar by allowing mail-in ballots for executive elections and eliminating the requirement that new members be nominated by current members.
The Association also actively advocated for the liberalization of abortion laws, civilian oversight of the New York City Police Department
, and the modernization of New York State’s Mental Hygiene Law. As Earl Warren stated in a speech in 1963, upon accepting honorary membership in the Association: “there is no Bar Association I know in this country or any other that has contributed more to legal history or to the jurisprudence of our country than this great Association.”
Beginning in the late 1960s, the Association also began to participate more actively in national legal debates. Presidents Bernard Botein
and Francis T.P. Plimpton
successfully led a coalition of legislators, lawyers, and law professors in opposition to President Richard Nixon
’s nomination of Clement Haynsworth
and G. Harold Carswell to the Supreme Court for their poor record on civil rights and labor rights. A newly established Sex and the Law Committee, chaired first by Orville Schell and later Ruth Bader Ginsburg
, became a leading advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment
and gay rights. The Association also became deeply involved in the Watergate investigation, publishing a series of reports and other materials calling for the impeachment
of Richard Nixon. After Nixon was pardoned by Gerald Ford
in 1974, the Bar’s grievance committee, led by Arthur L. Liman
, successfully campaigned to have Nixon disbarred in New York—the first time Nixon was ever legally found guilty of any malfeasance in connection with Watergate.
Under the leadership of Cyrus Vance
the Association was also finally able to substantially reform New York State’s process of choosing judges. Vance was head of a task force under Governor Hugh Carey
that drafted three proposed state constitutional amendments that established a system of gubernatorial merit appointment of New York Court of Appeals
judges and created a centralized court administration—goals the Association had sought since its inception a century earlier. These amendments were passed by the voters in 1977.
and Louis A. Craco
, the Association worked to improve its relationship with broader segments of the legal profession. The Judiciary Committee began working more closely with local bar associations in Brooklyn
, Queens
, the Bronx
, and Staten Island
in the evaluation of local judicial candidates, and the organization significantly increased its outreach to small law firms and sole practitioners.
Craco also expanded the Association’s involvement in pro bono legal work, creating the Volunteers of Legal Service, a program that facilitated representation by large law firms for low-income clients. VOLS, as the program was known, represented clients in criminal justice prosecutions and civil matters such as landlord-tenant disputes and family law, and also addressed problems of growing concern in the 1980s. The VOLS AIDS
project began in 1988, and the VOLS Legalization Support Project in 1989 to assist New York’s growing population of undocumented immigrants.
In the late 1980s and 1990s the Association increased its involvement in national issues. In May 1987, the Association decided to evaluate all future nominees to the United States Supreme Court, and subsequently opposed President Ronald Reagan
’s nomination of Robert Bork
to the Supreme Court. It also stepped up efforts to increase its own diversity. Under presidents Sheldon Oliensis
and Conrad K. Harper
, the Association developed an active policy “of inclusion and diversity with respect to the composition of its staff, its membership, the chairs and members of its committees and its officers,” which prioritized the recruitment of women and minorities and the encouragement of similar programs in large private law firms.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It is the country’s oldest bar association
Bar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...
, and with over 20,000 members, continues to be one of its largest and most influential.
Origins
In the years following the end of the Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the reputation of New York’s legal profession was in decline. The New York state constitutional convention of 1846 had eliminated all property qualifications and significantly lowered educational requirements for admission to the bar, and had changed the state’s system of choosing judges from an appointive to an elective one. By the 1860s in many districts restrictions on practicing law were minimal, and judges were too fearful of a popular electoral backlash to raise them significantly, resulting in a glut of under-qualified lawyers in the city’s courts.
In addition, the profession was marred by a series of high-profile scandals and allegations of corruption linking prominent New York lawyers to the politicians of Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
and the questionable business practices of powerful industrialists. The Erie War
Erie War
The Erie War was a 19th century conflict between American financiers for control of the Erie Railroad, which operated in several American states and connected New York to Chicago....
, a two-year legal struggle over control of the Erie Railroad
Erie Railroad
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, originally connecting New York City with Lake Erie...
between shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt , also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American entrepreneur who built his wealth in shipping and railroads. He was also the patriarch of the Vanderbilt family and one of the richest Americans in history...
and Erie board members Daniel Drew
Daniel Drew
-Biography:He was born in Carmel, New York.Drew was poorly educated. His father died when Daniel was fifteen years old. Drew enlisted and drilled, but because he enlisted too late, never fought in the War of 1812. After the war, he started a successful cattle-driving business. In 1823, he married...
, Jay Gould
Jay Gould
Jason "Jay" Gould was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He has long been vilified as an archetypal robber baron, whose successes made him the ninth richest American in history. Condé Nast Portfolio ranked Gould as the 8th worst American CEO of all time...
, and Jim Fisk, was one of the most notorious incidents. The court battle implicated some of New York’s leading lawyers and judges in widely criticized instances of corruption, vote buying, and obstructionist legal tactics. Respected lawyers retained by both parties—including Charles O'Conor
Charles O'Conor
Charles O'Conor was an American lawyer who ran in the U.S. presidential election, 1872.-Biography:...
and the noted legal reformer David Dudley Field—manipulated a confusing code of civil procedure to delay litigation and worked to appoint friends and political allies as receivers
Receivership
In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...
of valuable railroad stock, while other lawyers openly lobbied to bribe the New York State Legislature on their clients’ behalf. New York judge George C. Barnard, before whom many of the arguments were heard, and who was a known associate of the infamous William “Boss” Tweed, was later impeached on corruption charges in part for rulings made during the case.
The spectacle was the catalyst for widespread calls to regulate the legal profession. Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr.
Charles Francis Adams II was a member of the prominent Adams family, and son of Charles Francis Adams, Sr. He served as a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War...
, lawyer and grandson of John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...
, criticized the affair in the American Law Review as an “extraordinary perversion of the process of law,” and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called for a legal professional organization similar to those that already existed in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. “Such an organization is sadly needed in this City,” the Times editorialized on June 20, 1869, “and if the respectable members consult their professional interests and expectations they will form one at an early date.” In December 1869, prominent lawyers began circulating a “call for organization” of the legal profession in order to “sustain the profession in its proper position in the community, and…enable it to serve the public.”
Early years
The "call to organization" became the basis for the formation of the New York City Bar Association. The two hundred initial signatories of the document — all prominent New York attorneys — met to draft the Association’s constitution and bylaws on February 15, 1870 in a school house on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 28th Street. A year later, when the Association was legally incorporated, it had enrolled 493 members, representing nearly one in eight attorneys in New York City. Aside from the establishment of a law library, still considered the most comprehensive in the country, the Bar Association’s purpose, as stated in its constitution, was legal reform: “cultivating the science of jurisprudence, promoting reforms in the law, facilitating and improving the administration of justice, elevating the standard of integrity, honor and courtesy in the legal profession, and cherishing the spirit of collegiality among the members thereof.” Following the trials of the Tweed Ring, William M. EvartsWilliam M. Evarts
William Maxwell Evarts was an American lawyer and statesman who served as U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator from New York...
, a well-known lawyer who had successfully defended President Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
during his impeachment hearings and later served as Attorney General, was elected the Association’s first president, a post which he would hold for nine years. Samuel Tilden, a national political leader and an outspoken critic of government corruption, was elected vice president.
The Association quickly lent its public support to government reform in New York and its leading members played pivotal roles in many of the important reform battles of the time, including a large-scale corruption investigation of Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
in the 1870s. Tilden and other powerful members of the Association, including Joseph H. Choate, Henry Nicoll
Henry Nicoll
Henry Nicoll was a United States Representative from New York. Born in New York City, he graduated from Columbia College in 1830. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1835 and commenced practice in New York City...
, Wheeler H. Peckham, and Charles O’Conor, who was appointed special state attorney in the investigation, were primarily responsible for obtaining convictions against "Boss" Tweed and other Tammany Hall associates, including Mayor A. Oakley Hall
A. Oakley Hall
Abraham Oakey Hall was an American politician, lawyer, and writer. He served as Mayor of New York from 1869 to 1872. He was alleged to have been part of the vilified "Tweed Ring"...
, for the embezzlement of an estimated $75 million to $200 million (though the investigation and trial were never officially endorsed by the New York City Bar). In 1873, the Bar’s Committee on the Judiciary, under Peckham’s leadership, submitted a report on judicial corruption to the legislature that led to the removal of four notorious New York judges: Albert Cardozo
Albert Cardozo
Albert Jacob Cardozo was an American jurist.Albert began practicing law in 1849, and became a justice of the Supreme Court of New York, that state's trial court...
, John McCunn
John McCunn
John McCunn belonged to a poor Irish immigrant family who arrived in New York in the 19th century. He worked as a dockhand before training as a lawyer, and eventually becoming a judge. He was a member of the infamous Tweed Ring, which he aided by naturalising new citizens to boost his election...
, D.P. Ingraham, and George Barnard.
1880 to 1900
In the middle of the 1870s, the reform movement in New York lost momentum: the Association was unable to advance a referendum to restore the state system of selecting judges to appointment rather than election, or to convince the state legislature to consider passing laws reforming the municipal government of major cities. Many of the organization’s founding members retired from active participation: Tilden ceased to play an active role in the Association following an unsuccessful run for President of the United StatesPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
against Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
, while Evarts left to become Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
in the new administration and Nicoll and O’Conor retired amidst scandals surrounding their private practices.
In the ensuing years, the Association largely receded from political life, and concerned itself with more administrative projects: the reform of admissions standards for the bar and, in 1877, the establishment by Association members of the New York State Bar Association
New York State Bar Association
The New York State Bar Association , with 77,000 members, is the largest voluntary bar association in the United States.-History:The State Bar was founded with a constitution that dates to 1877...
. The Association’s main substantive victory in these years was to successfully lobby the New York State Legislature to defeat David Dudley Field’s codification of civil law, a measure which many—especially Association president and Field rival James Coolidge Carter —opposed on ideological grounds.
In 1896, the Association moved into its current landmark House
House of the New York City Bar Association
The House of the New York City Bar Association, located at 42 West 44th Street in Manhattan, New York, is a New York City Landmark building that has housed the New York City Bar Association since its construction in 1896.-History:...
on West 44th Street, which it commissioned from the prominent architect Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz.
1900 to 1920
In the early twentieth century, the Association’s leadership was older than in the early years, and more partisan in its loyalty to the Republican PartyRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. As a result, those lawyers interested in bipartisan government reform became more involved in organizations such as the Citizens’ Union and the Good Government Club, and the Association’s activities increasingly looked inward.
1920 to 1940
In the years following the end of the First World War the Association was able to improve its public image and restore its political prestige. In one of the most famous incidents in the Bar’s history, former Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Charles Evans HughesCharles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican politician from New York. He served as the 36th Governor of New York , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , United States Secretary of State , a judge on the Court of International Justice , and...
led the Association in public opposition to a decision by the New York State Legislature to expel five assemblymen elected in 1919 on the Socialist Party
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
ticket. The Association published a resolution condemning the Assembly’s decision on the front page of several leading national newspapers and, in the following days, sent a committee of five, headed by Hughes, to the Legislature in Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
where they confronted the Speaker, Thaddeus Sweet, and distributed letters of protest. The event made national news, earned the Association an unprecedented national following, and helped overturn a public image of the Bar as politically disengaged.
When Hughes became President of the Association in 1927 he worked to increase both the Association’s relationship with the public and its role in legal reform, establishing a series of radio broadcast lectures entitled The Fundamentals of the Law and playing a leading role in the regulation of frivolous personal injury lawsuits and the reform of the state’s bankruptcy laws. Hughes’ successor, Charles Burlingham
Charles Culp Burlingham
Charles Culp Burlingham was a prominent New York City lawyer, legal reformer, and president of the New York City Bar Association.-Early life:...
, with the cooperation of then-Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Judge Samuel Seabury
Samuel Seabury
Samuel Seabury was the first American Episcopal bishop, the second Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA, and the first Bishop of Connecticut. He had been a leading Loyalist in New York City during the American Revolution.-History:Samuel Seabury was born in Groton, Connecticut in 1729...
, led the Association a year later in a city-wide investigation of judicial corruption and court fixing under Tammany mayor Jimmy Walker
Jimmy Walker
James John Walker, often known as Jimmy Walker and colloquially as Beau James , was the mayor of New York City from 1926 to 1932...
which led to indictment of two judges and the disbarment
Disbarment
Disbarment is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking his or her law license or admission to practice law...
of sixteen attorneys in 1930. Seabury, himself chair of the Association’s judiciary committee and later its president, went on in the 1930s to lead major investigations that led to the disbarment of New York County District Attorney
New York County District Attorney
The New York County District Attorney is the elected district attorney for New York County , New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws....
Thomas Crain and the removal from office of Walker himself, though the Association itself played only a supporting role in the investigations.
In 1937 women were made eligible for membership in the Association, and by the late 1930s, the Association’s membership had more than doubled since its low point two decades earlier.
1940 to 1960
For much of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Association’s activities were limited due to the employment of many members in the armed services and the United States War Department and the general priority given to the war effort. However, in the years immediately following the war membership again grew under the leadership of president Harrison Tweed
Harrison Tweed
Harrison Tweed, , was a New York City lawyer and civic leader.-Life and career:Tweed was born in New York City on October 18, 1885. He was the son of Charles Harrison Tweed, the general counsel for the Central Pacific Railroad, Chesapeake and Ohio and other affiliated railroad corporations, and...
. Tweed, who was a grandson of William Evarts (and no relation to “Boss” Tweed), made significant gains in membership by promoting social activities and also largely reorganized the Association into its current form, appointing a permanent executive director and establishing rotating membership for the Bar’s growing number of committees.
The Association vocally opposed the investigations of Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
and the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
into suspected communist affiliations of government employees. When the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
, inspired by the Smith Act
Smith Act
The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S...
, passed a resolution in 1950 recommending that states require loyalty oaths of all lawyers admitted to the bar, the New York City Bar Association soundly defeated a similar resolution proposed by several members. Some members of the Association, including president Robert P. Patterson
Robert P. Patterson
Robert Porter Patterson was the United States Under Secretary of War under President Franklin Roosevelt and the United States Secretary of War under President Harry S. Truman from September 27, 1945 to July 18, 1947....
and his successor, Whitney North Seymour
Whitney North Seymour
Whitney North Seymour was a prominent New York trial lawyer and bar leader who served in the Hoover Administration and later served as the 84th president of the American Bar Association...
, were openly critical of loyalty oaths and of the tactics of McCarthy, and president Allen T. Klots
Allen T. Klots
Allen T. Klots was a New York City lawyer and president of the New York City Bar Association.-Early life and education:Allen T. Klots was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1889...
began an Association initiative to provide legal representation to government employees questioned under the new loyalty programs. The Association was also a prominent critic of the controversial Bricker Amendment
Bricker Amendment
The Bricker Amendment is the collective name of a series of proposed amendments to the United States Constitution considered by the United States Senate in the 1950s. These amendments would have placed restrictions on the scope and ratification of treaties and executive agreements entered into by...
, intended to limit the power of the President to enter into foreign treaties. Throughout the McCarthy era, several special committees of the Bar published reports that were harshly critical of the government’s loyalty and security programs, culminating in a national study of the legal issues raised by loyalty investigations led by president Dudley Bonsal.
Throughout much of the late 1950s and 1960s, the Association continued to improve its organization, acquiring an administrative and library staff of 120 by 1969 and gradually increasing the number of specialized committees it supported. It also invested considerable energy in the reorganization of the legal system. The Association published several landmark studies in these years, including a report on privacy entitled Privacy and Freedom by its Committee on Science and the Law and a groundbreaking report on family court by a special committee chaired by Oscar M. Ruebhausen
Oscar M. Ruebhausen
Oscar M. Ruebhausen was a prominent New York City lawyer, and adviser to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, and a president of the New York City Bar Association.-Early life and education:...
, many of whose recommendations were later adopted.
1960 to 1980
The Association was actively engaged in the social movements and debates of the late 1960s, hosting Dr. Martin Luther King and Earl WarrenEarl Warren
Earl Warren was the 14th Chief Justice of the United States.He is known for the sweeping decisions of the Warren Court, which ended school segregation and transformed many areas of American law, especially regarding the rights of the accused, ending public-school-sponsored prayer, and requiring...
to speak at a time when the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
was still resistant to civil rights legislation, and sponsoring several committees which supported the legality of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
. The Association itself became more egalitarian in these years, electing its first female member of the executive committee in 1972 and democratizing access to the Bar by allowing mail-in ballots for executive elections and eliminating the requirement that new members be nominated by current members.
The Association also actively advocated for the liberalization of abortion laws, civilian oversight of the New York City Police Department
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
, and the modernization of New York State’s Mental Hygiene Law. As Earl Warren stated in a speech in 1963, upon accepting honorary membership in the Association: “there is no Bar Association I know in this country or any other that has contributed more to legal history or to the jurisprudence of our country than this great Association.”
Beginning in the late 1960s, the Association also began to participate more actively in national legal debates. Presidents Bernard Botein
Bernard Botein
Bernard Botein was a prominent New York City lawyer and judge, a legal reformer, a presiding justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, and a president of the New York City Bar Association.-Early life:Bernard Botein was born to a German Jewish family on New...
and Francis T.P. Plimpton
Francis T.P. Plimpton
Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton was a diplomat, prominent New York City lawyer, partner at the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, and a president of the New York City Bar Association.-Early Life:...
successfully led a coalition of legislators, lawyers, and law professors in opposition to President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
’s nomination of Clement Haynsworth
Clement Haynsworth
Clement Furman Haynsworth, Jr. was a United States judge and an unsuccessful nominee for the United States Supreme Court....
and G. Harold Carswell to the Supreme Court for their poor record on civil rights and labor rights. A newly established Sex and the Law Committee, chaired first by Orville Schell and later Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton and took the oath of office on August 10, 1993. She is the second female justice and the first Jewish female justice.She is generally viewed as belonging to...
, became a leading advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...
and gay rights. The Association also became deeply involved in the Watergate investigation, publishing a series of reports and other materials calling for the impeachment
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
of Richard Nixon. After Nixon was pardoned by Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
in 1974, the Bar’s grievance committee, led by Arthur L. Liman
Arthur L. Liman
Arthur Lawrence Liman was a partner at the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and was well known for his public service.-Life and career:...
, successfully campaigned to have Nixon disbarred in New York—the first time Nixon was ever legally found guilty of any malfeasance in connection with Watergate.
Under the leadership of Cyrus Vance
Cyrus Vance
Cyrus Roberts Vance was an American lawyer and United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980...
the Association was also finally able to substantially reform New York State’s process of choosing judges. Vance was head of a task force under Governor Hugh Carey
Hugh Carey
Hugh Leo Carey was an American attorney, the 51st Governor of New York from 1975 to 1982, and a seven-term United States Representative .- Early life :...
that drafted three proposed state constitutional amendments that established a system of gubernatorial merit appointment of New York Court of Appeals
New York Court of Appeals
The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the U.S. state of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six associate judges who are appointed by the Governor to 14-year terms...
judges and created a centralized court administration—goals the Association had sought since its inception a century earlier. These amendments were passed by the voters in 1977.
1980 to 2000
In the early 1980s, under presidents Oscar M. RuebhausenOscar M. Ruebhausen
Oscar M. Ruebhausen was a prominent New York City lawyer, and adviser to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, and a president of the New York City Bar Association.-Early life and education:...
and Louis A. Craco
Louis A. Craco
Louis A. Craco is a New York City lawyer, partner with the law firm Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher, and a former president of the New York City Bar Association-Education:...
, the Association worked to improve its relationship with broader segments of the legal profession. The Judiciary Committee began working more closely with local bar associations in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, and Staten Island
Staten Island
Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
in the evaluation of local judicial candidates, and the organization significantly increased its outreach to small law firms and sole practitioners.
Craco also expanded the Association’s involvement in pro bono legal work, creating the Volunteers of Legal Service, a program that facilitated representation by large law firms for low-income clients. VOLS, as the program was known, represented clients in criminal justice prosecutions and civil matters such as landlord-tenant disputes and family law, and also addressed problems of growing concern in the 1980s. The VOLS AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
project began in 1988, and the VOLS Legalization Support Project in 1989 to assist New York’s growing population of undocumented immigrants.
In the late 1980s and 1990s the Association increased its involvement in national issues. In May 1987, the Association decided to evaluate all future nominees to the United States Supreme Court, and subsequently opposed President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
’s nomination of Robert Bork
Robert Bork
Robert Heron Bork is an American legal scholar who has advocated the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork formerly served as Solicitor General, Acting Attorney General, and judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...
to the Supreme Court. It also stepped up efforts to increase its own diversity. Under presidents Sheldon Oliensis
Sheldon Oliensis
Sheldon Oliensis was a New York City lawyer, a president of the Legal Aid Society, and a president of the New York City Bar Association.-Early life and education:...
and Conrad K. Harper
Conrad K. Harper
Conrad K. Harper is a New York City lawyer, a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, and a former president of the New York City Bar Association.-Early life and education:Conrad Harper was born in Detroit, Michigan on December 2, 1940...
, the Association developed an active policy “of inclusion and diversity with respect to the composition of its staff, its membership, the chairs and members of its committees and its officers,” which prioritized the recruitment of women and minorities and the encouragement of similar programs in large private law firms.