March 2015           News | Upcoming Programs & CLE | Reports | Get Involved

Program

Housing Subsidies Update 2015
Thursday
March 12
6:00 - 9:00 PM
An overview of housing subsidies including voucher and project-based Section 8, FEPS, LINK, 80/20 and 421a buildings.

Expedited Foreclosure on Vacant Property in New York under Existing Law
Wednesday, March 25
8:15 am - 9:30 am
This is the fourth part of an ongoing series of informal breakfast discussions regarding foreclosure litigation. The panelists will discuss the issues surrounding vacant properties, community blight created by them and the benefits and challenges involved with expediting foreclosure proceedings on vacant properties.

CLE


Litigating Construction Project Disputes - 101
Tuesday
March 24
6:00 - 8:45 PM
This program covers the types of disputes which commonly arise, mechanisms to avoid procedural snafus and options in employing alternative dispute resolution alternatives.

Construction Contracts 201
Tuesday
April 21
9:00 AM- 12:30 PM

This advanced program will provide participants with an in-depth roadmap to the 10 key clauses that every design and construction practitioner should understand and know when drafting and documenting a complex construction project.

How to Buy and Sell a Restaurant
Wednesday
April 22

9:00 - 12:00 PM
This introductory program will teach you about the different forms of restaurant purchase and sale transactions along with the advantages and disadvantages of each.


Missed a Program? You Can Still Benefit! CLE Programs' CDs, DVDs and other course
materials can be found on the website.


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2015 New York State Legislative Agenda

The New York City Bar Association has released its 2015 New York State Legislative Agenda, which focuses on issues that are relevant to the current legislative debate or of particular importance to the City Bar, as well as legislative proposals drafted by our committees. Included in the agenda is a call to modernize New York’s public procurement construction laws to provide public owners with a wider variety of procurement and delivery modes, as necessary and appropriate, to reduce costs, speed delivery and improve quality and safety. To read more about this issue and view the full agenda, click here.


The Right to Counsel in Housing Court
The Committee on Pro Bono & Legal Services and the Committee on Housing Court jointly issued a report supporting City Council legislation that would provide all tenant-respondents in Housing Court, or in other courts where litigants are defending against ejectment or foreclosure proceedings, and who qualify financially (income at or below 125% of the poverty level), with a right to counsel. Currently, over 90% of tenants appear in housing court without counsel, and lack of counsel dramatically affects the ability of low-income people to navigate the court system effectively and obtain successful outcomes. Providing counsel in these cases will also result in cost savings to the City regarding sheltering the homeless and providing other services. While supporting the legislation, the committees recommend that the economic level for accessing counsel be increased to include individuals and families whose income is at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, as that is a more realistic gauge of who cannot afford counsel in these proceedings.

Construction Procurement in New York
The Committee on Construction Law submitted a report to the State Legislature on Budget Bills concerning the authorization of the use of design-build service delivery methodology ("design-build") for State public construction projects. For several years, the Committee has been urging modernization of the State's construction procurement law, as the current rigid approach of awarding public construction contracts is inefficient and costly to the State and its localities. According to the Committee, the "design-build" approach set forth in the Budget Bills permits the constructor/builder entity to be identified before construction so that it can contribute its skill and judgment to the design process. The Committee believes that the Budget Bills, while a good start, do not go far enough or deep enough to achieve the changes in construction practices necessary to drive the desired economic benefits from public investments in infrastructure, including omitting local governments from its scope. The Committee recommends creation of a special commission that brings all construction industry and public owner stakeholders to the table to hammer out a new public construction procurement code in order to modernize New York's built environment laws.


Committee Involvement--It's Never too Late
Committees are how the City Bar’s work gets done. Working on a committee can give you great experience while opening up a number of career doors, some you may not even anticipate.

A full list of the City Bar committees along with a brief description of each and an application form can be found on the City Bar’s website. As a number of City Bar committees have more applicants than available slots, please consider applying to more than one committee.

Legislative Affairs
Have an interest in or questions about the City Bar’s legislative work? Send an email to legislation@nycbar.org, visit our website or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Updates include recent City Bar reports, news and upcoming programs in a particular practice area and are issued periodically to City Bar members.