National Bar Association holds 94th Annual Conference
Caribbean L 6 ife, Aug. 2–8, 2019 BQ
PATIENTS’
CHOICE
RATED & AWARDED BY PATIENTS
SM
By Nelson A. King
The National Bar Association (NBA),
the nation’s oldest and largest national
network of predominantly African-
American attorneys and judges held
its 94th Annual Conference in New
York City during the week of July 21.
According Justice Sylvia G.
Ash, a Trinidadian-born judge of
Grenadian and Vincentian parentage
in Kings County Supreme Court,
the conference began with a judicial
memorial service at the Abyssinian
Baptist Church in Harlem on July 21.
At that event, Justice Ash said
lawyers and judges paid tribute to
judges of color who died in 2018-
2019.
“In attendance were over 100
judges of color from over 25 states
throughout the US,” she told
Caribbean Life on Monday. “After the
church service, there was a judicial
procession through the streets of
Harlem for a luncheon at the historic
Schomburg Center.”
The NBA, which was founded in
1925, said it represents the interests
of about 65,000 lawyers, judges, law
professors and law students.
The organization said it is
organized around 23 substantive law
sections, nine divisions, 12 regions
and 80 affiliate chapters throughout
the United States and around the
world.
Justice Sylvia Hinds-Radix holds poster, with Justice Sylvia G. Ash to her
immediate left and other judges and lawyers at NBA convention.
Justice Sylvia G. Ash
According to the New York Law
Journal, the NBA’s next presidentelect
will be Atlanta-based Tricia
“CK” Hoffler.
Joseph Drayton, a partner at
Cooley who is the NBA’s current
president, said at the sidelines of
the group’s annual convention in
New York that Hoffler was elected
as the group’s next president-elect.
Lonita Baker, Lamont Bailey
and Nathaniel Lee were elected as
vice presidents, Drayton said, and
Tamara Lawson, Anne-Marie Clarke
and attorney Sekou Gary were
elected to at-large board member
posts, the New York Law Journal
said.
It said Hoffler, a Buffalo, New
York, native, is a trial lawyer who
runs her own law firm in Atlanta.
Baker is an attorney with
Louisville, Kentucky-based Sam
Aguiar Injury Lawyers, Bailey is
the managing partner of New Yorkbased
Bailey & Bailey, and Lee is
a senior partner at Indianapolisbased
Lee Cossell & Crowley.
The New York Law Journal said
Lawson is dean of the St. Thomas
University School of Law in Miami
Gardens, Fl; Clarke recently retired
as commissioner of the St. Louis
City Family Court; and Gary is a
partner at Gary, Williams, Parenti,
Watson & Gary in Stuart, Fl.