NYCBA Members Newsletter

Welcome to the February 2007 issue of our Newsletter.

At the NYCBA Annual Meeting on February 27, 2007, Anthony Ricco was elected as our new President. Genay Leitman was elected Vice President. Leonard Levenson was re-elected Secretary and Michael Bachrach was re-elected Treaturer. Officers serve for a term of two years. Neil Checkman, Andrew Eibel, Daniel Hochheiser, Frederick Sosinsky and Edward Wilford were re-elected as directors, to serve for a term of three years.

Outgoing President's Message:

It has been a great privilege to serve as President of the New York Criminal Bar Association. These past two years have given me the opportunity to work with you on many challenges and developments, such as:
-urging that indigent defense reform include a strong component for private lawyers to take assigned cases (testimony in 2005 before the NYS Commission on indigent defense reform)
-opposing the elimination of the Senate filibuster rule, which was proposed in order to facilitate putting extremists on the federal bench; having the honor to address the NACDL Board at the Spring 2005 Meeting, and have the NACDL Board adopt resolutions to this effect; and opposing attacks on judicial independence
-opposing legislation to revive the death penalty in New York, and reviewing parts of the transcript of the 30+ hours of testimony before the NYS Assembly committee (2005)
-arranging for second-seating (I am especially grateful to Andrea Hirsch for taking the responsibility for facilitating this process)
-sending condolences and distributing funeral information for the all-too-many and too-young defense lawyers who have passed away in the past two years
-struggling with vouchers delays, and the delays and barriers to getting into and out of MCC and MDC (2006)
-initiating our observation of Black History Month (February 2007)
-trying to preserve our space at 100 Centre St. for defense use (2007)
-improving our CLE programs and making them even more useful to the defense practitioner
-making our June 2005 and 2006 dinners, and our holiday parties, enjoyable and financially successful.

My thanks to all who have worked with me, especially to:
-our hard-working Treasurer Michael Bachrach,
-Ken Aronson, who volunteered (before I was President) to help me with the CLE programs (without being asked) and has been responsible for administrative burden of running these programs for the past two years, and
-Peter Schmidt, who has been so helpful in supervising the administration of our Website, and in writing the technical updates in this Newsletter and working with me to write the rest of it.

My congratulations to Tony Ricco on his election as President, and to Genay Leitman on her election as Vice President, and to the other officers and directors on their re-election (see below). My best wishes to all the officers, directors, Past Presidents and especially to the defense lawyers who are members of the NYCBA, in meeting the challenges and making the most of the opportunities which lie ahead.

Yours for a better defense,

Henry J. Steinglass,
Retiring President
email: hjsteinglasslaw@earthlink.net

New Officers And Directors Elected:

We are proud to welcome our newly-elected and re-elected officers and directors; and we have listed below their current phone numbers and email addresses:

CLE Program On February 27, 2007:

On 2/2/707, following a reception and the annual meeting, NYCBA held a the two-part CLE program at the federal courthouse at 500 Pearl St., co-sponsored by The Legal Aid Society.

First, Hon. George Bundy Smith, former Associate Judge, New York Court of Appeals, discussed the case law on depraved indifference murder which has been the subject of major recent change.

Then, Second Circuit Judge Barrington D. Parker, Jr., District Judges Sterling Johnson, Jr. (E.D.N.Y.), and George B. Daniels (S.D.N.Y.), and Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis (S.D.N.Y), spoke on the history of African-American judges in the Second Circuit, and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. February is Black History Month.

Retention Of Room 1618 At 100 Center Street:

An NYCBA delegation met with Administrative Judge Micki Scherer on 2/15/07 and Chief Clerk Alan Murphy about retaining our room (#1618) at 100 Centre St. Our delegation consisted of NYCBA President Henry Steinglass, NYCBA founder Judge Robert L. Cohen, NYCBA Past President Larry Goldman, NYCBA Board member Genay Leitman (elected Vice President on 2/27/07), Sol Schwartzberg, Bruce Klang, Amelio Marino, Ronald Veneziano, and Norman Williams.

Justice Scherer emphatically agreed with us that there should be space in the courthouse for defense lawyers but indicated that Room #1609, now used as a sergeant’s locker room, appeared to be suitable for us. We noted the importance of having a separate conference room in our space especially when a lawyer is on trial. Judge Scherer said that for the past two years use of the room is supposed to be for lawyers only due to security concerns (as there are judges chambers further down our hall). We pointed out that the room proposed for us (Room #1609) measures 24 x 18 feet, which is slightly larger than our present main room (which is about 21 x 19 feet), so the contemplated move would actually give the sergeants less space in the main room. Judge Scherer mentioned the possibility we could use the IDV jury room near room near #1609 for client/witness interviews. Judge Scherer concluded the meeting by saying that no change in our space would be made without further consideration to the issues we had raised.

One immediate benefit from this meeting is that we were told that, starting right away, requests can be made if there are special needs regarding client/witness interviews for a big trial or a place to store documents while on trial. Alan Murphy promised a quick response to these requests. In view of our continuing discussions with Alan Murphy (see below), it is suggested that for the time being you make such a request through Henry Steinglass (until 2/27/07) and thereafter through another NYCBA representative to be designated.

On 2/23/07, Alan Murphy indicated that there may be client/witness interview space available for us immediately on the 13th floor. Watch for membership emails and the next Newsletter for further developments.

Attorney's Lounge Opens In The Eastern District:

The attorney’s lounge in the new Eastern District courthouse is now open. Named for Federal Defender Tom Concannon and AUSA Charles Rose, this comfortable space (with a TV) is located on the 4th floor near the center of the building (#403). It is accessible with a swipe card which can be obtained at the Clerk’s Office.

NYCBA Web Site Features

Each month, we try to point out some of the latest resources that we have posted on our Website at www.nycrimbar.org/. In keeping with that tradition, we note the following items:

• We have posted on the Legal Research section of our Website an excellent and informative 48-page Memorandum entitled "Update on BOP Issues Affecting Clients Before and After Sentencing," dated February 2007 and authored by Stephen R. Sady, the Chief Deputy Defender from Portland, OR.
  
  
  
• We have posted on the Decisions section of our Website a copy of the ruling by Magistrate Judge James C. Francis of the S.D.N.Y. in the case entitled Watson v. Ricks, No. 05 Civ. 7288 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 24, 2007), in which he extended the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), by holding that excluding prospective jurors because of their national origin violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. For an interesting commentary on this decision, see "Ruling Extends 'Batson' to Targeting National Origin of Jurors," by Daniel Wise, as published in the New York Law Journal, Jan. 29, 2007.
  

What's New On The Internet:

• A number of years ago, a new technology emerged on the Internet known as RSS news feeds. The use of this technology can be of enormous value to attorneys; but, unfortunately, because it is little understood and somewhat complicated to set up, very few attorneys use it.
  
  However, because more and more legal Websites are beginning to use RSS news feeds, we thought it would be helpful to post some basic information about RSS news feeds: what are they, how they can be used, and how to install an RSS program on your computer.
  
  RSS is an acronym for "Really Simple Syndication." Essentially, RSS is a software program that monitors and collects in a single location changes posted on multiple Websites and automatically sends notice of those postings directly to your computer. Thus, many Websites and bloggers provide headlines and news about up-to-date content in a succinct manner that is usually identified by one of the following small orange icons: or
  
  There are many useful applications for RSS feeds, but we note two of the most useful. First, if you find yourself reading an increasing number of Blogs, you can get headline summaries of the latest additions to a large group of those blogs and then read only those portions of your favorite blogs that interest you.
  
  Second, if you use large and growing Websites (like the one maintained by the New York State Unified Court System at http://www.nycourts.gov/home.htm), it is hard to keep track of all the new resources that are constantly being added to that site - unless you sign-up for an RSS news feed. For example, the N.Y.S. Unified Court System Website now offers RSS feeds in a number of different areas including What's New on the site, All RSS Feeds (which notifies you each time a new RSS news feed is added), and Continuing Judicial Education (which alerts you when new legal research materials have been added to the site).
  
  Thus, if you had signed up to the What's New feed, you would have learned, inter alia, that, effective as of February 9, 2007, the WebCivilSupreme page of the N.Y.S. Unified Court site now permits you to search the daily court calendars of civil cases in the Supreme Court by Index No., by Plaintiff's name and by Defendant's name.
  
  To subscribe to a RSS news feed in order to access information that is identified by the or the icons, you first have to download and install a "news reader" or "news aggregator" program - otherwise, when you click on any of the links listed above, you will get nothing but an unintelligible stream of gibberish. But those news reader programs are relatively easy to install - and there are many such programs - some of which are free and some of which you have to pay for to use. One of the easiest to use is FeedReader3, which is available - free - at http://www.feedreader.com/.
  
  To find out more about installing a RSS news feed program on your computer, we recommend two sources: First, try "Setting Up Your RSS News Feeds," which is posted on the N.Y.S. Unified Court System Site. Second, a slightly more complex article appears on the Harvard Law School Really Simple Syndication Website. Both articles take much of the mystery out of RSS news feeds, and show you how to install and use a RSS program on your computer.

Annual Dues:

If you have not already paid your annual dues to the New York Criminal Bar Association, please do so at your earliest convenience. Payment was due on January 1, 2007. Payment may be made by sending your check, made payable to the “New York Criminal Bar Association,” to Michael K. Bachrach, NYCBA Treasurer, 276 Fifth Avenue, Suite 501, New York, New York, 10001. Payments may also be made by faxing or emailing your credit card authorization to Mr. Bachrach at (866) 328-1630 or michael@mbachlaw.com.

If you have any questions regarding membership dues please call Michael at (646) 797-2776, or email him at the above email address. A copy of our Membership Application/Renewal Form is attached to this newsletter for your convenience.

Member News:

Congratulations to NYCBA Past President Jack Litman on winning a not guilty verdict earlier this month. Ben Odierno was charged with stabbing his wife to death in their upper East Side townhouse. The successful defense was self-defense. Mr. Odierno spent two years in jail before being acquitted at age 72 .

Comments and Newsletter Contributions Welcome:

Comments on the Newsletter are most welcome, as are your own stories about cases, issues, arguments, events, etc. - whether just a sentence or a paragraph to alert us to a recent development, or a longer piece. Please let us know what you would like to see in the Newsletter and tell us about your own news, if you are changing firms or locations, looking for space or have space available. Please send your material to Scott Tulman, Chair of the Internet and Newsletter Committee at Tel.: (212) 867-3600 or email: stulman@tulmanlaw.com - or send your comments by email directly to our committee at: nycrimbar@nyc.rr.com.

Please Update Your Contact Information:

If you are changing your preferred email address or other contact information, please let us know so that you will continue to receive this Newsletter, NYCBA CLE notices and other information. Please send your new info to nycrimbar@nyc.rr.com

Internet and Newsletter Committee:
Scott Tulman, Chair
Harvey Fishbein
Michael K. Bachrach
Peter G. Schmidt