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Michael E. Getnick
President
Attorney Michael E. Getnick took office June 1, 2009 as 112th
President of the 76,000-member New York State Bar Association,
pledging to help both lawyers and people in need of legal services to
deal with the enormous challenges the current economic downturn has
created. He is a partner of Getnick Livingston Atkinson &
Priore, LLP, of Utica, New York and is of counsel to Getnick and Getnick
of New York City.
“Lawyers and law firms are struggling with the
same kinds of business issues every other business is struggling
with,” said Getnick. “We need members of our
profession to know that, at times like this, they have an ally in the
State Bar Association, and that we’re going to focus on them and
their issues and offer programs and services to help them."
He received his undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University
in 1966, where he was an NCAA Division 1 basketball
player, and earned his law degree from Cornell University in
1969.
Getnick has been an active member of the State Bar
from the beginning of his career. He has been President-elect for
the past year and chaired the Association’s House of
Delegates. He was named Secretary in 2006 and prior to that,
served as a member-at-large of the Executive Committee from 2000 to 2003
and vice president of the 5th Judicial District from 2004 to
2006.
He is a member of the Trial Lawyers Section, the
Torts, Insurance and Compensation Law Section and the Environmental Law
Section. In 1988, he received the President’s Pro Bono Service
Award for the 5th Judicial District. He served in the House of
Delegates representing the Oneida County Bar Association from 1995 to
1999.
He is a member of the committees on Diversity and
Leadership Development and Membership, the Special Committee on Unlawful
Practice of the Law and a former member of the Task Force on Town and
Village Courts. He is a fellow of The New York Bar Foundation, former
chair of the Committee on Court Operations and former co-chair of the
President’s Committee on Access to Justice.
Getnick also has been a member of the Board of
Directors of the Greater Northeast Chapter of the American Heart
Association. He is chair and legal counsel to the Town of Kirkland
Zoning Board of Appeals. Acting pro bono, he incorporated the Mohawk
Valley Committee Against Child Abuse. He also has served as
president of the Legal Aid Society of Mid-New York,
president of the Oneida County Bar Association, and is a member of the
5th Judicial District Pro Bono Committee.
A resident of Clinton, New
York, he is married to Susan Donohue Getnick and
has two grown sons, Brian and Kevin.
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