The Manhattan and Brooklyn District Attorneys; New York City’s Corporation Counsel; Deans and leaders of Columbia, Harvard, Georgetown, CUNY and Cardozo Law Schools; law firm leaders from Paul Weiss, Simpson Thacher, Skadden Arps and Freshfields; the chief in-house counsel from BNY Mellon, Morgan Stanley, Pfizer, Xerox and Con Ed; and the heads of The Legal Aid Society and Legal Services of New York are among those convening at the New York City Bar Association to address what City Bar President Carey Dunne has described as the “plight of young lawyers.”
Noting that recent ABA statistics show that only 55 percent of recent law graduates found full-time legal employment and that clients increasingly are unwilling to have new lawyers staffed on their matters, Dunne said, “Too many law graduates face diminished opportunities to launch their careers and fear they will never get on track. Even those who are employed are justifiably worried about their longer-term prospects for a productive and satisfying career in the law. Whether these recent changes are temporary or reflect a more fundamental shift in the structure and operation of the legal profession, the time has come for the leaders of our profession to respond.”
The New York City Bar Association’s “Task Force on New Lawyers in a Changing Profession” will be led by City Bar Vice President Mark Morril, who said, “The group we have assembled has the depth and breadth of experience necessary to assess the problem and the leadership position to be heard on significant recommendations for change if they are warranted.” Members of the task force, which will convene in September and plans to issue a report next summer, are listed below. The group also expects to add several law students or new lawyers to its ranks.
Chair: Mark Morril – Vice President, New York City Bar Association; Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Viacom Inc.
Law School Deans and Leaders: Michelle J. Anderson - Dean, CUNY School of Law; Matthew Diller - Dean, Cardozo Law School; David Schizer - Dean, Columbia Law School; William Treanor - Dean, Georgetown Law School; David B. Wilkins - Director, Program on the Legal Profession, Harvard Law School.
Government Attorneys: Michael Cardozo - Corporation Counsel of the City of New York; Charles J. Hynes - District Attorney of Kings County; Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. - District Attorney of New York County.
Large Law Firm Leaders: Richard I. Beattie - Chairman, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; Eric J. Friedman - Executive Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; Brad S. Karp - Chairman, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; Julian Pritchard - U.S. Managing Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP; Kathleen M. Sullivan - Partner, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP.
Solo, Small and Medium-Sized Law Firms: Laurie Berke-Weiss - Partner, Berke-Weiss & Pechman LLP; Andrew G. Celli, Jr. - Founding Partner, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP; Carmelyn P. Malalis - Partner, Outten & Golden LLP; Alla Roytberg - Founder, Law Firm and Mediation Practice of Alla Roytberg, P.C.; Eric Seiler - Partner, Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman LLP; Charles A. Stillman - Founding Member, Stillman & Friedman, P.C.
Legal Services Organizations: Steven Banks - Attorney-in-Chief, The Legal Aid Society; Raun J. Rasmussen - Executive Director, Legal Services NYC.
Chief In-House Counsel: Eric Grossman - Chief Legal Officer, Morgan Stanley; Don H. Liu - General Counsel, Xerox; Elizabeth D. Moore - General Counsel, Consolidated Edison, Inc.; Amy W. Schulman - General Counsel, Pfizer Inc.; Jane C. Sherburne - General Counsel, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation; Wanji J. Walcott - Managing Counsel, American Express Company.
Career Services and Recruiting Professionals: Camille Chin-Kee-Fatt - Director of Career Services, Brooklyn Law School; Sharon Crane - Director of Legal Recruiting, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.