Lawyer-legislator Disclosure and Client Privacy: Statement by New York State Bar Association President Glenn-L

ALBANY, NY (03/19/2015)(readMedia)-- Glenn Lau-Kee, president of the New York State Bar Association, today issued the following statement in lending support to a proposal announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie:

"The New York State Bar Association believes in transparency in government, but is also concerned with protecting clients of lawyers who are entitled to have private information be kept confidential. No proposal should be enacted that does not adequately protect client-confidentiality.

"We support the two-way agreement on disclosure which protects client-confidentiality, because it serves the public interest by enhancing financial disclosure while fundamentally recognizing the critical right of clients to avoid publicly revealing very sensitive matters."

The 74,000-member New York State Bar Association is the largest voluntary state bar association in the nation. It was founded in 1876.

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