NYCBA Members Newsletter

Welcome to the May 2008 issue of our Newsletter.

President's Message:

* * * THE ANNUAL DINNER * * *

I am reaching out to each of you to encourage your attendance at the New York Criminal Bar Association’s Annual Dinner this year, June 16, 2008, at the Tavern on The Green.

As most of you know by now, this year we are honoring Herald Price Fahringer, Kevin McNally and our very own Henry J. Steinglass. Our guest speaker is the Hon. Gustin L. Reichbach of the New York State Supreme Court, the once radical Columbia Law student, who has distinguished himself as a Judge serving on the Kings County Supreme Court.

Our Defense Bar is getting older and it is important that the younger members of the Defense Bar make contact with many of you who have achieved so much during your careers.

In honoring Herald Price Fahringer, we are honoring a luminary, a renowned stalwart of the Defense Bar. Herald Price Fahringer, with over 50 years of practice under his belt, has argued more than a dozen cases before the United States Supreme Court and has served as defense counsel in many high profile cases, including Claus von Bulow, who was accused of trying to murder his wife and Jean Harris, for killing the Scarsdale diet doctor. However, to many of us, Herald Price Fahringer served as the quintessential role model of courage, intelligence, grace and dignity in the courtroom.

Most importantly, Herald Price Fahringer, was always available to younger lawyers beginning their careers in the Defense Bar.

Now at the twilight of his distinguished career, we should all take the time be there, to stand up and say “job well done.” It will be a precious moment for him, as he looks back over his long career, and an important moment for the younger members of the Defense Bar as they look forward with their careers.

Kevin McNally, as many of you know, is the director of the Federal Death Penalty Resource Project and has been at the forefront of defending those facing the death penalty over the past 25 years. Kevin's commitment to top flight representation for capital defendants is unparalleled.

For most of you who have had success in defending capital defendants here in the EDNY, the SDNY and elsewhere, you owe the acquisition of your basic and advanced capital defense survival skills to Kevin McNally and the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project.

Kevin McNally is a low key person, who is rarely recognized for his outstanding contributions. You should be there as we honor him. If you can't make it in celebration of Kevin’s long over due recognition, then show up on behalf of all those defendants who have been spared a spot on death row due to Kevin’s outstanding advocacy.

Finally, we are all familiar with Henry J. Steinglass. Henry is being recognized for his tremendous behind the scenes - make things happen - involvement within the organized Defense Bar. It is our opportunity to say thank you.

The Annual Dinner is one of the rare times that we have an opportunity to get together, other than a funeral, and spend time with each other. It is important that many of you continue your visibility and access to the younger members of the Defense Bar. The Annual Dinner provides such an opportunity. In this way we ensure that the legacy of Herald Price Fahringer, Kevin McNally, and Henry Steinglass, is handed down to the next generation of defense attorneys.

For a copy of the Annual Dinner invitation, click here.

I am hoping to see you all at the dinner.

Yours for a better defense,

Tony Ricco,
President
email: tonyricco@aol.com

Metropolitan Black Bar Association Presents
"Lawyer of the Year Award" to Tony Ricco

On Thursday evening, May 14, 2008, the Metropolitan Black Bar Association presented its annual "Lawyer of the Year Award" to our own President, Tony Ricco. The award honored Tony for his tireless efforts to provide the highest level of representation to persons charged with crimes on the state and Federal levels and in federal capital proceedings across America. Tony was also honored because of his never ending endeavor to afford young lawyers the opportunity to achieve their own measure in our difficult task of providing excellent counsel to the accused. The attorneys Tony has mentored are legion and are a testament to his commitment. In short the award was a well deserved thank you for saving and guiding lives.

Congratulations Tony - we are proud of you.

Upcoming CLE Seminars:

• June 4, 2008 - Recent Criminal Law Decisions of the New York State Court of Appeals - The NYCBA and the Legal Aid Society are sponsoring this free CLE seminar on Wednesday evening, June 4, 2008 at 5:30 p.m. in Part 31, Room 1333, on the 13th Floor of the Supreme Court, Criminal Courts Building, 100 Centre Street, in Manhattan. The speaker will be the Honorable James A. Yates, Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, New York County. Two hours of New York State MCLE credit will be awarded in the area of Professional Practice. For additional information regarding this Seminar, please contact Kenneth J. Aronson, C.L.E. Coordinator for the NYCBA at (212) 573-8920.
  
  
  
  

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 item:

• We have posted on the What's New page of our website a link to a report by the New York Civil Liberties Union entitled "Rockefeller Drug Laws Cause Racial Disparities, Huge Taxpayer Burden" that was published on May 8, 2008.
  
  
• We have posted on the Federal Agencies page listed under the Telephone Directories button on our website links to the latest - and different - Visiting Regulations applicable to the BOP's facilities in the Metropolitan New York area, as follows:
  
  
  • MCC Manhattan
  • MDC Brooklyn
  • FCI Otisville
  • FCI Danbury
  • FCI Fort Dix
  • FCI Fairton
    
    
    

What's New On The Internet:

• Update: Free sources of Federal cases online. A recent article in Law Technology News, entitled "Online Legal Research Revolution," gives powerful evidence of how the Internet is rapidly changing and shaping legal research.
  
  As noted in that article, there is now a new online resource, sponsored jointly by
  Creative Commons and Public.Resource.Org, that provides free access to a substantial body of Federal case law. In fact, as of now, this new resource contains some 1,896 volumes of free case law, and includes (a) every Supreme Court decision published in the U.S. Reports, from Volume 1 through Volume 546; (b) every decision of the Federal Circuit Courts published in the Federal Reporter, Second Series from Volume 178 F.2d through Volume 999 F.2d; and (c) every decision of the Federal Circuit Courts published in the Federal Reporter, Third Series from Volume 1 F.3d through Volume 529.
  
  To assist our readers in navigating these new resources, we have set forth below a guide to finding not only the cases contained on the Public.Resource.Org site but also the subsequent decisions of the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal which have not yet been added to the Public.Resource.Org site:
  
  
• Decisions of the United States Supreme Court:
  
  
  • For decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court published in the U.S. Reports from Volume 1 through Volume 546 (which covers the Supreme Court decisions published from the founding of the Court in 1790 to October 1995), go to the Public.Resource.Org site at http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/US/; and
    
    
  • For decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court published from 1995 to date, go to the Supreme Court's official website at http://www.supremecourtus.gov/.
    
    [Please note that there is a significant overlap between the two sites, since both sites include the decisions published in Volumes 502 through 546 of the U.S. Reports. The Supreme Court's website, however, also includes all of its decisions published from 1995 to date and therefore you should use the Supreme Court's site when searching for the most recent decisions.]
    
    
    
• Decisions of the Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal:
  
  
  • For decisions of the 12 Circuit Courts of Appeal published in the Federal Reporter, Second Series from Volume 178 (January, 1950) through Volume 999 (August, 1993), go to the Public.Resource.Org site at http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/.
    
    
  • For decisions of the 12 Circuit Courts of Appeal published in the Federal Reporter, Third Series from Volume 1 (September, 1993) through Volume 529 (March, 2000) go to the Public.Resource.Org site at http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/.
    
    
  • For the decisions of the various Circuits published after March, 2000, the best source generally is the website maintained by the individual Circuits, all of which are listed in the following chart:
    
    
  
  

  First Circuit	Seventh Circuit
  Second Circuit	Eighth Circuit
  Third Circuit	Ninth Circuit
  Fourth Circuit	Tenth Circuit
  Fifth Circuit	Eleventh Circuit
  Sixth Circuit	D.C. Circuit

  
  
  The Law Technology article also notes another project, still in early testing, aims to give this growing body of public-domain law a sophisticated search engine comparable to those of commercial legal databases. Already, the developers of this experimental legal search engine, called PreCYdent, claim their tests outperform "by a wide margin" Westlaw natural language search, not to mention other commercial databases.
  
  We also note another new site known as AltLaw.org, which claims to provide "the first free, full-text searchable database of Supreme Court and Federal Appellate case reports." Currently there are more than 700,000 cases in its database - and you can search U.S. Supreme Court cases from 1759 to the present, and Circuit Court cases from around 1940 to the present. Just perform a search, and you'll get a listing of cases that you can view for free. If you see a case cite in a page that is hyperlinked, that means it's also available in the database -- just click on it and you'll go to that case. As with many of these new free research tools, coverage is not complete -- but they're getting there.
  
  Finally, at least one commercial publisher is getting aboard the free-law bandwagon. For some time, Fastcase has provided access, on a subscription basis, to a large array of State and Federal legal resources at prices that are significantly less than those charged by WestLaw and LEXIS. Recently, Fastcase unveiled a huge free online library of cases, statutes, regulations, court rules and legal forms, known as the Public Library of Law ("PLOL"). Calling itself the "the world's largest free law library," PLOL claims to be "the most comprehensive free resource for legal research online." PLOL includes all the federal cases Fastcase provided to Public.Research.Org, plus appellate cases from all 50 states from 1997 forward. In addition, it has all states' statutes and court rules, selected states' regulations or administrative codes, the U.S. Code, the Code of Federal Regulations and court rules.
  
  While we urge you to read the entire article noted above for more details, and to check out some of the websites listed above, the good news from all of this is that it is becoming increasingly apparent that, as time goes on, WestLaw and LEXIS (and their ever-increasing fees) are becoming increasingly irrelevant!
  

Annual Dues:

We have suspended access to the NYCBA Website for those members who have not paid their 2008 dues. While those members may continue to receive this Newsletter, all other membership benefits have been suspended until 2008 membership dues are paid. If you are one of those individuals who no longer has access to the NYCBA Website, or to other member benefits, and you wish to be reinstated, or if you believe the suspension was made in error, please immediately contact Michael K. Bachrach, NYCBA Treasurer, by telephone at (212) 929-0592 or by email at michael@mbachlaw.com, so that we may update our records accordingly.

Annual dues are $100 and cover the period of January 1st – December 31st of each year. 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 emailing your credit card authorization to Michael or by faxing it to him at (866) 328-1630.

Comments and Newsletter Contributions Welcome

Comments on this and future issues of this 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 send your material to Scott Tulman, Chair of the Internet and Newsletter Committee at Tel.: (212) 867-3600 or email: stulman@aol.com - or send your comments by email directly to our committee at: nycrimbar@nyc.rr.com.

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