Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP is pleased to announce that its partner, Stephen P. Younger, has taken office as the 113th President of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA), the largest voluntary bar association in the country. He is the third Patterson Belknap partner to become President of the NYSBA. He follows one of the firm's founders, Chauncey Belknap, and its former partner, U.S. District Court Judge Robert P. Patterson, Jr., both of whom previously served in this role.
Mr. Younger has been an active member of the NYSBA for 27 years. He has been President-Elect for the past year and chaired the Association's House of Delegates. Mr. Younger served as a member-at-large of the Association's Executive Committee during 2007-2009. He served as Chair of the State Bar's Commercial and Federal Litigation Section during 2005-2006. He is past chair of the Section's Securities Litigation Committee and its Pro Bono and Public Interest Committee. He also chaired the State Bar's Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee. He is a fellow of The New York Bar Foundation and an active member of the Association's Committee on Membership, having chaired its recent Membership Challenge.
In addition to his State Bar activities, Mr. Younger is Counsel to the New York State Commission on Judicial Nomination. He is a member of the First Department Judicial Screening Committee and serves on the Advisory Committee to the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court. He served as Transition Director for New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo and was a member of the Transition Committee for New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance. He served as a member of former Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye's ADR Task Force.
As a commercial litigator at Patterson Belknap, where he has worked since 1985, he has tried many cases in federal and state court and before arbitration panels. He also frequently argues appeals, particularly in the appellate courts of New York. Based on his significant alternative dispute resolution experience, he is often called on to serve as an arbitrator or mediator in high-stakes matters.
Mr. Younger serves as a mediator for the United States District Court, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; Chair of the Executive Committee of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution; and Trustee of the Historical Society of the New York State Courts. He is a member of the Congress of Fellows for the Center for International Legal Studies and the Advisory Committee of the Center for Financial Market Regulations.
A trustee of Albany Law School, and past president of the law school's National Alumni Council, he is a frequent lecturer and author in the fields of securities litigation, commercial arbitration and international dispute resolution.
Mr. Younger graduated cum laude from Harvard University and earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Albany Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Albany Law Review.