ALBANY, NY- If you’re a law school graduate who attends one of those bastions of freedom, self-expression, and mostly anti-Semitism such as Columbia or Harvard, be assured that the state of New York has your back when trying to attain the 50 hours of legal work required to be admitted to the New York bar. However, if you decide to do pro bono work for the Trump administration, go pound sand.
A bill advancing in the New York legislature, sponsored by a far-left nutjob from Manhattan, Assemblyman Michah Lasher, any such legal work performed for the current President of the United States would not count toward the required 50 hours law school graduates must show to become barred, according to Legal Insurrection.
The proposed measure, advanced in the final weeks of New York’s legislative session, exempts free legal work “performed pursuant to an agreement with the federal government” from the required 50 hours.
Lasher, who is clearly an unhinged loon, said, “This legislation aims to send a clear message that bending the knee is never the right answer when dealing with fascists, and that we need New York’s lawyers to be champions, always, for the rule of law.” Lasher said, not addressing the current legal issues the state’s Attorney General, Letitia James, finds herself in. James is under investigation for bending the law in her favor concerning obtaining favorable financial terms on several home loans. If Letitia James is a “champion…for the rule of law,” we’d like to see how they define the term.
If passed, the legislation would present yet another roadblock for New York firms that have made deals with the Trump administration to provide free (pro bono) legal work.
Typically, law school graduates start positions before they’re admitted to the bar as lawyers, and rely, in part, on those employers to help them attain the state’s bar admission requirements, which often include pro bono hours.
Nine of the nation’s most prominent law firms, including Paul Weiss, Kirkland & Ellis, Skadden, and Simpson Thacher, have all pledged $940 million in legal services for Trump-supported causes, including combating anti-semitism, assisting veterans, and “ensuring fairness” in the criminal justice system.
Who’s the fascist again?
The deals were made with the administration to skirt executive orders, such as those directed at firms with ties to lawyers who targeted the president, such as Perkins Coie, and to resolve federal probes into issues such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. The president also wants to use the firms to defend police officers wrongly accused of misconduct, work on tariff issues, and help revive the coal industry, which the Biden administration gutted.
Several of the firms’ leaders indicated in internal communications that they wanted to retain the right to choose the clients and matters they take on.
“It is an outrageous betrayal of Americans in need that the New York justice system would deny them affordable legal representation simply for being veterans or Jewish,” said White House spokesman Harrison Fields. “This disgraceful discrimination undermines the very pro bono initiatives President Trump has championed to ensure justice for all.”
Conversely, David Glasgow, executive director of NYU Law’s Meltzer Center for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, expectedly disagrees.
“It does seem to me that there should be some limiting principle to make sure that pro bono hours are actually being used in the public interest,” Glasgow said. “I do not think that whatever this administration decides it wants to do fits within the definition of public interest.”
Bloomberg Law reached out to New York’s appellate divisions, but three did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the fourth appellate division said it would be up to the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, whether to honor the bill. That court set the existing 50-hour pro bono rule. A Court of Appeals spokesman declined to comment on the proposed legislation.
The proposed legislation comes as New York lawmakers are winding down their legislative session, which is scheduled to end on June 12. Democrats run both chambers, and the bill has a Senate sponsor, Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal. A spokesman for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat and rabid sufferer of Trump Delusion Syndrome, said she “will review the legislation if it passes the Senate and Assembly.”
