From Caribbean Business

SAN JUAN – Michael Miller, who was sworn in Monday as president of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA), announced his priorities for the coming year. Among them, is a working group to explore ways to help people in Puerto Rico who are still affected by Hurricane Maria.

“My friends, there is a humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico of historic proportion,” he said during the ceremony, according to the New York Law Journal. “I am appointing a Working Group on Puerto Rico to explore ways through enactment or modification of laws we might be able to assist our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico who are suffering so grievously.”

In his remarks, Miller said he has formed task forces and working groups to address his other priorities. According to the NY Bar, these include a Task Force on the Evaluation of Candidates for Election to Judicial Office, “to propose best practice guidelines and make recommendations to assist local bar associations, good government groups and others in developing new effective non-partisan judicial evaluation efforts and improve existing ones.”

Also, a new Task Force on Wrongful Convictions to make recommendations to reduce wrongful convictions, and a Task Force on Incarceration Release Planning and Programs to recommend “state and national policy changes and best practices in order to help better prepare those released from incarceration to re-enter the community and reduce the rate of recidivism.”

He also formed a Task Force on Mass Shootings and Assault Weapons to “consider the connection between mental health and mass shootings, the relationship between domestic violence and mass shootings, and “whether assault weapons belong in civilian hands.”

Miller has been a “solo practitioner for more than 30 years in Manhattan, with a general civil practice focusing primarily on estate and trust work, including planning, administration and litigation,” the NYSBA said. He was previously president-elect and chair of the NYSBA’s House of Delegates, former president of the New York County Lawyers Association and former chair of the NYS Conference of Bar Leaders.

Among his award-winning pro bono programs, Miller received the ABA’s Pro Bono Publico Award for his role in the legal relief efforts in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Miller is a graduate of New York University and New York Law School.

“This is the greatest honor of my professional life,” said Miller.  “Words are inadequate to fully express how very deeply honored I am to serve as the president of the New York State Bar Association.”

Miller will serve a one-year term as president of the New York Bar, the largest voluntary state bar association in the U.S.