NEW YORK COUNTY LAWYERS' ASSOCIATION
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NEW YORK COUNTY LAWYERS' ASSOCIATION AND ITS OBJECTS . BY J. NOBLE HAYES "IT 7 HAT is the New York County Lawyers'
- ' Association? What does it expect to
accomplish for the legal profession? Why was it formed as an association independent of the venerable association of the Bar of the City of New York? And what are its prospects of success? These are the questions which many lawyers throughout the county are asking and which it will be the object of this article in a measure to answer. In the first place, it may be said with little fear of contradiction that the New York County Lawyers' Association represents the most systematic and thoroughly organized effort ever made in any American city to unite the members of its bar in an effective work ing organization for the protection of their professional interests, the maintenance of high standards of honor among its members, the safeguarding of the courcs of justice, and the promotion of the orderly development of the science and practice of the law. The significance of the movement and its possibilities for good become apparent when it is considered that there are upwards of 12,000 practicing lawyers in that portion of the greater city embraced within the county of New York, 3.000 of whom have joined in forming the Association and have agreed to pay annual dues of $10 a year, before it has had an opportunity to do more than adopt by-laws, elect officers, organize its standing committees, and project its career; and before it is able to offer its members any immediate material advantages or conveniences in the way of a library, club house, or other per manent place of meeting. The Association is organized upon the broadest and most catholic lines. It aims to include in its membership every lawyer engaged in practice in the count'y of New
York. Its fundamental postulate is that whoever is deemed fit by the state to practice law is prima facie qualified for membership in the Lawyers' Association of the county. Its doors are accordingly thrown wide open to all. The provisions of its by-laws relating to qualifications for membership are as follows : "Article VI. Section i. " Every attor ney or counsellor of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, in active practice and having an office in the County of New York, shall be eligible to membership in the Association." Over this membership the Association proposes to exercise not only a protective but a disciplinary influence. The movement was entirely popular in its origin, and had its inception in a resolution passed at a general meeting of the bar of the county in the fall of 1907 at Carnegie Hall, called for the purpose of taking action on impending local judicial nominations and other business that might be brought before it. A committee of twenty-five appointed by the chairman of the meeting, Mr. Strauss, in obedience to this resolution, was subse quently enlarged to a committee of one hundred and fifty members of the bar, carefully selected by the original committee. The result of the labors of this large and representative committee is the present rapidly growing Association of 3,000 mem bers, which held its initial annual meeting on April 28, 1908. At this meeting notable addresses were delivered by its venerable and distinguished President, Ex-Judge John, F. Dillon, and its three Vice-Presidents, Ex-Judge Alton B. Parker, Ex-Judge William, J. Wallace and Ex-Judge Joseph F. Daly, and by Judge Ward of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Holt of
