Stephen Lessard, a senior associate in the New York office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and a member of the firm’s tax group, is the new president of the New York County Lawyers Association. Before joining the firm, he was a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy.

He describes himself as the first openly gay president of a major bar association in New York. In this Q&A with the New York Law Journal, he speaks about the association’s principles of diversity and inclusion, saying he is a beneficiary of those policies.