4I2
THE GREEN BAG
the United States Circuit Court, representing the Federal Judges of the District; Justice Clarke, representing the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. First Department, and Justice Gildersleeve, representing the Justices of the Supreme Court. Certainly no professional association was' ever launched under more favorable and . distinguished auspnces. • The address of Judge Dillon outlining the high purpose of the Association is a classic, written and delivered in the best style of that great jurist and orator, and will be long remembered by the great body of lawyers who were assembled to hear it. The governing power of the Association is vested in a board of thirty directors consisting of its President, three VicePresidents, Secretary and Treasurer, and twenty-four members of the Association at large, divided into three equal classes, serving one, two, and three years, respec tively, one class being elected each year. The general work of the Association is divided up among fourteen great standing committees, each being appointed by the President, and also divided into three equal classes, as in the case of the Board of Directors, to which the committees report in most instances before committing the Association to any final action upon meas ures of importance and general interest. The scheme of government thus devised is one of highly centralized power and widely diffused activity, it being the design to encourage as large a number of lawyers as possible to engage in the work of the Asso ciation, and to specialize it for that purpose and to ensure efficiency; and at the same time to hold it all together and prevent divergent and conflicting action on the part of various committees, by the central control of the Board of Directors. The standing committees of the Associa tion, which are indicative of its objects, are as follows: A House Committee, a Member ship Committee, a Committee on Discipline, a Library and Publication Committee, a
Committee on Professional Ethics, a Com mittee on the Judiciary, a Committee on the Practice and Procedure in the Supreme Court of the First Judicial Department, a Committee on the Federal Court and Proce dure, a Committee on the Practice and Procedure in the Surrogates' Court of the County of New York, a Committee on the Practice and Procedure in the City Court of the City of New York, a Committee on the Practice and Procedure in the Munici pal Courts, a Committee on Courts of Criminal Procedure, a Committee on Legis lation, a Committee on Admission to the Bar of Attorneys and Counsellors at Law, a Committee on Court Houses and Court Rooms, and a Committee on Gratuity Fund. But it is realized that all this parapher nalia of committees and boards and proce dure will be ineffectual to accomplish the objects of the Association unless it be supported by an active and general interest on the part of its members; and it is there fore one, if not the chief, object of the Association to create and foster a strong professional sense, or esprit de corps, which shall extend throughout all ranks of the great army of lawyers who make up the active and learned bar of New York County, and inspirit them to unite upon all matters of common interest; that the commanding influence of the entire bar may be fully exerted upon its own affairs, and that it may be restored to the position of power and influence which the bar of the city once held and which is the rightful heritage of the profession in all times and places. This spirit has been sadly lacking in the county bar since it became such a vast unorganized body, but it is now thought that with the formation of the new Associa tion the bar of New York has " come to its own." Another purpose of the organization is to provide for the common everyday comfort and convenience of the members of the bar, which have been so sadly neglected for
