Michael E. Getnick

ALBANY - At a time when seasoned, laid-off lawyers are competing for jobs with debt-burdened law school graduates on the most-rugged legal industry terrain in memory, Michael E. Getnick said his year as president of the New York State Bar Association will focus on finding ways to help attorneys keep practicing law.

"This year, the bar association is going to be refocusing on the basics," Mr. Getnick said in an interview. "My theme is going to be a little bit different than some of my predecessors, who have created wonderful committees and task forces. I do intend to continue the work of those committees and task forces, but my main goal is going to be focusing on lawyers being lawyers."

Mr. Getnick, 64, formally becomes state bar president on Monday, when he succeeds Bernice K. Leber as head of the 76,000-member group. He is a partner specializing in civil and appellate work at the Utica firm of Getnick Livingston Atkinson & Priore.

Mr. Getnick said the poor condition of the state and national economies demands that the state bar present itself as a resource for law firms and attorneys seeking to stay in business, for lawyers who have lost their jobs and for aspiring lawyers entering the difficult job market.

Attorneys must also be encouraged to continue to honor their obligations to pro bono clients who are facing foreclosures, consumer credit problems or other personal finance issues due to the economy, said Mr. Getnick, a former Legal Aid Society attorney.

"I think you're going to find the bar association is the best and closest ally to lawyers," he said.

Mr. Getnick said he would provide the necessary resources to enhance the ability of the Solo and Small-Firm Practice, the Law Practice Management, the Lawyers in Transition and other state bar committees to provide firms and individual lawyers assistance in tough economic times. The committees will work in tandem at times, he said.

In addition to the health and life insurance coverage available to members through the association, Mr. Getnick said the group can give attorneys practical direction on how to use technology and other tools to run their practices. It can also be a better "clearinghouse" to line up attorneys offering their services pro bono to the agencies looking for help for poor clients, he said.

In addition, Mr. Getnick said he wants to work with law schools to enroll more students into the bar group before graduation and to ensure the schools introduce more business-oriented curriculum to prepare prospective attorneys for their entre into the profession.

"I think we can really help young law students so when they come out of law school they will be more prepared to get into the business world," he said.

'Transition' Guidance

The head of the Lawyers in Transition Committee, Lauren J. Wachtler, said she welcomes Mr. Getnick's intended emphasis on heightening the use of the state bar as a tool for lawyers seeking jobs or pro bono work.

Ms. Wachtler, of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, said she does not mean to downplay the value of committee and task force reports commissioned by recent presidents on legal and public policy issues. But she said the poor economy has made the direction Mr. Getnick plans for the state bar an imperative.

"In this economic market, people are more interested in not, 'What can I do for the bar association,' but 'What can the bar association do for me?'" she said.

Ms. Wachtler's committee was initially set up mostly to aid women attorneys seeking to re-enter the legal industry after willingly dropping out to raise families. It has since transformed itself into a source of information for all displaced attorneys seeking new jobs.

Ms. Wachtler said the committee has begun monthly live webcasts for attorneys looking for work in the law or other professions.

Mr. Getnick said he would continue to push the initiatives begun by Ms. Leber and her predecessors. Under an informal deal that started with Ms. Leber's predecessor, Kathryn Grant Madigan, state bar presidents have agreed to continue to promote the issues championed by previous presidents.

Committees appointed by Ms. Leber in the past year have studied wrongful convictions, the legal implications of global warming, ways to protect the privacy of personal information, the needs of solo and small-firm practitioners and the physical condition of courthouses around the state.

Ms. Leber, a partner at Arent Fox, called Mr. Getnick, her frequent lobbying partner in Washington and Albany on legislation affecting the legal industry during the past year, a "terrific guy."

"He's very effective as an advocate," she said in an interview. "People do respect him. He has his head on right and he understands the needs of lawyers, particularly in this economic crisis."

Mr. Getnick was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. His father, Irving M. Getnick, was a solo practitioner in Manhattan before founding Getnick & Getnick with Michael Getnick's brother, Neil.

Michael Getnick said he knew as early as junior high school that he wanted to be an attorney, but also that he wanted to practice in a less metropolitan environment than Manhattan. He earned an undergraduate degree at Pennsylvania State University, where he briefly played basketball, and his law degree at Cornell Law School in 1969.

"It was the only law school that appeared to be in a country atmosphere," he said.

Following three years as a Legal Aid Society lawyer in Oneida County, Mr. Getnick went into private practice.

He said he initially expected to stay in the Utica area for just a few years with his wife, Susan, a special education teacher who grew up in suburban Syracuse. But they have remained there for nearly 40 years. The couple has two grown sons.

Mr. Getnick said his elevation as state bar president should be the beginning, not the culmination, of his service to the organization.

"Being nominated and becoming the president of the bar association is not an accomplishment, it's an opportunity," he said. "It really is a privilege. I would hope at the end of the year . . . that people would say, 'This person did a good job. This person upheld the trust that we put in him.'"

Stephen P. Younger, a partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, is in line to become the next state bar president in June 2010.

Joel.Stashenko@incisivemedia.com