Civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill gives a speech after receiving the NYSBA's Gold Medal Award at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan on Friday, January 20, 2023. Photo: Ryland West/ALM

As she accepted the New York State Bar Association's Gold Medal Award, civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill called on those in attendance to fight to maintain the integrity of the profession. "Let's make ourselves worthy," Ifill said Friday at NYSBA's 2023 Presidential Gala, held at the Rainbow Room. "Let's remember that we're part of this important group of people who are essential to maintaining the integrity of any healthy democracy. That is a huge mantle to be placed upon us. But it is one that we've chosen." The longtime president and director-counsel of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund thanked friends and family, but much of her speech focused on legal responsibilities in today's current political climate. "We're facing a moment of challenge in this country of democratic challenge," she told the room. "And we play a powerful role in what will be the future of this democracy because there is no healthy democracy in a world that does not adhere to the rule of law and have a functioning legal system of integrity. And so it is our job to protect the boundaries of the rule of law in this country. And because you, we, are the New York State Bar, we have outsized influence in this country and over our profession. And so we have to decide, what are we responsible for?" Ifill said she'd always taken great pride in being a lawyer, and in helping the country's most marginalized feel seen and heard. But in recent years, she lamented, her clients have increasingly struggled to feel like the system works for them. Concepts like the Shadow Docket, judge-made doctrines like qualified immunity, election litigation and the rising rate of wrongful convictions are undermining a trust that the law is there for them. "They want to understand when they see texts of people in high places—calling up witnesses and saying 'he's watching'—They want to understand, why is that not illegal? Why is that not witness tampering? When their son was imprisoned for years for sending similar texts to a witness in a gang drug case," Ifill said. "We are together bound by this thing, our adherence to the rule of law and the oath we take. It is the reason why at the end of a hard-fought trial in some southern courtroom years ago I could shake the hand of my opposing counsel who did a good job, whether I agreed with their positions or not. But when that opposing counsel now makes misrepresentations to the court, lies, files frivolous claims, engages in practices that we all learned are unethical; should I shake their hand?" Ifill said she wasn't asking the room to become civil rights lawyers, but to remember why they came to the law in the first place. "I'm now talking about something that I think is our job, yours and mine, which is ensuring that our profession is one of integrity that we can point to and vouch for its fairness and vouch for the fact that it adheres to those words etched on the frontage of the United States Supreme Court, 'Equal Justice Under Law'," she stated. "We cannot just turn the page at the end of the newspaper when we realize that the justice system we serve is stealing the lives of people because they cannot afford counsel, because they are black, because they are marginalized, because the system is unfair. We are implicated by that—you and I are not innocent—if we do not raise our voice within our own profession to make it right." "We've seen distortions of the best of our profession," Ifill continued. "We've seen evidence of people at the highest levels of our profession, in the Department of Justice, engaged in conduct that you and I know is completely unacceptable for what we were taught is right in our profession. You have seen judges issue decisions that have no basis. In fact, you have seen appellate courts pretend that the factual record doesn't exist. You have seen the very boundaries of our profession, stretched and expanded by those who seek power. But at the end of the day, the one thing that must hold is the legal profession." She said other professions, like journalism, also had their own work to do. But as lawyers, they must step up to protect democracy. "Let's take care of our house first," Ifill implored. "Let's get serious about the celebration we're having tonight. We enjoy being lawyers. We get our livelihood from it, we get our status from it. It opens doors for us. We show up places and we're treated with respect because we are lawyers. Let's make ourselves worthy. Let's remember that we're part of this important group of people who are essential to maintaining the integrity of any healthy democracy." "That is a huge mantle to be placed upon us. But it is one that we've chosen." Ifill currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation. She previously spent 10 years as President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She is also a professor, scholar, and author. She has received numerous awards and honorary doctorates and was named by TIME magazine as one of 2021's most influential people in the world.