NYSBA Removes Rudy Giuliani From Its Membership

NYSBA Removes Rudy Giuliani From Its Membership

6.29.2021

By Christian Nolan

As soon as the news broke late last week that attorney Rudolph Giuliani had been given an interim suspension from the practice of law in New York, the New York State Bar Association removed him from its membership.

“The New York State Bar Association is immediately removing Rudy Giuliani as a member of our association because of his suspension from the practice of law,” NYSBA President T. Andrew Brown said in a statement. “Nothing means more to us than the integrity of the profession and we applaud the work of the attorney disciplinary committee in safeguarding the public.

“It is equally important that we recognize the ongoing legal process and Rudy Giuliani’s right to defend himself,” Brown continued. “We will await the completion of the disciplinary process before taking further action.”

The decision to suspend Giuliani’s law license in New York, pending further proceedings before a grievance committee, was handed down June 24 by a five-judge panel of the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, First Department.

“[W]e conclude that there is uncontroverted evidence that [Giuliani] communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020,” Justices Rolando T. Acosta, Dianne T. Renwick, Sallie Manzanet-Daniels, Judith J. Gische and Barbara R. Kapnick wrote in their decision.

NYSBA announced in January – following the Capitol insurrection at which Giuliani said, “Let’s have trial by combat” – that the association had received hundreds of complaints about him due to his baseless efforts on behalf of President Trump to cast doubt on the veracity of the 2020 presidential election and, after the votes were cast, to overturn its legitimate results.

As widely reported, these efforts included the commencement and prosecution of court actions in multiple states without any evidentiary basis whatsoever. In each case, these actions were dismissed by the courts in which they were brought.

As such, then-NYSBA President Scott M. Karson made the historic announcement that the association had launched an inquiry pursuant to its bylaws to determine whether Giuliani should be removed from the membership rolls.

As the nation’s largest voluntary state bar association, NYSBA’s bylaws state that “no person who advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States, or of any state, territory or possession thereof, or of any political subdivision therein, by force or other illegal means, shall be a member of the association.”