NYCLA CELEBRATES CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY ON MAY 22 AT ANNUAL MEETING

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Anita Aboulafia 212-267-6646, ext. 225, aaboulafia@nycla.org

 

NYCLA CELEBRATES CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY ON MAY 22 AT ANNUAL MEETING

 

MAY 19, 2008 – New York, NY – The New York County Lawyers’ Association (NYCLA) is celebrating its 100th anniversary on Thursday, May 22 beginning at 5:30 PM at its Annual Meeting, which will place at St. Paul’s Chapel, across the street from the NYCLA Home of Law at 14 Vesey Street. Following the induction ceremony of the Association’s new officers, a gala celebration will take place at the Home of Law with champagne, hors d’oeuvres and live classical music.

 

Hon. Judith S. Kaye, Chief Judge of the State of New York, will be the Annual Meeting’s keynote speaker. The officers to be inducted are: Ann B. Lesk, a partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, who will become the Association’s third woman president and 56th president; James B. Kobak Jr., a partner at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and president of the NYCLA Foundation as President Elect, Joel B. Harris, a retired partner at Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP as Vice President, Ernest E. Badway, a partner at Fox Rothschild LLP as Treasurer; and Stewart D. Aaron, a partner at Arnold & Porter LLP as Secretary.

 

Centennial Theme: Advocating Equality… Creating Opportunities

NYCLA’s Centennial theme – Advocating Equality…Creating Opportunities – embodies NYCLA’s impact on the profession and on public policy over the past 100 years. Founded as the first major bar association in the United States to admit members without regard to race, ethnicity, religion or gender, NYCLA held its first membership meeting in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company’s Assembly Room on May 21, 1908.

 

Throughout the period of its growth to the 10,000 attorneys, judges, members of academia and law students who are members, NYCLA has advocated for reforms in the law and in the administration of justice, elevating the standards of integrity and professionalism, and providing free legal services to the indigent and others in need.

 

NYCLA Home of Law

Designed by Cass Gilbert, NYCLA’s Home of Law, a vital institution in lower Manhattan since 1930, was designated a New York City landmark in 1965. It is the site of the Association’s highly acclaimed Continuing Legal Education Institute, as well as a venue for public forums and lecture series that educate the public on an array of topical issues.

 

NYCLA Foundation

The NYCLA Foundation is in the midst of a Centennial Capital Campaign, which will enable NYCLA to make necessary repairs and overdue improvements to its 78-year-old building. The second purpose of the campaign is to maintain and enlarge endowment funds for programs and future needs and emergencies.

 

NYCLA’s Annual Meeting is among the myriad events taking place during NYCLA’s Centennial year celebration, which commenced in April 2007 and ends in December 2008. NYCLA (www.nycla.org) was founded in April 1908 as the first major bar association in the country that admitted members without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual identity. Since its inception, it has pioneered some of the most far-reaching and tangible reforms in American jurisprudence and has continuously played an active role in legal developments and public policy.

 

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