Muhammad Faridi Nominated as President of New York City Bar Association
December, 2023 - New York, New York
On December 6, 2023, the New York City Bar Association announced that Patterson Belknap partner, Muhammad U. Faridi, has been nominated as its next president. If elected, Mr. Faridi will be the youngest person and first-ever Muslim American to serve as president of the New York City Bar Association.
Mr. Faridi is a partner in the litigation department of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP. He focuses his practice on complex commercial matters involving claims related to breaches of contract and commercial torts, and maintains an active pro bono practice across a wide variety of matters.
Mr. Faridi currently serves as the independent civilian representative to the New York City Police Department’s Handschu Committee, which regulates the NYPD’s policies and practices regarding investigations of political activity in compliance with a consent decree. He previously served on the New York City Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. Faridi previously held several leadership positions at the New York City Bar Association, including vice president, Chair of the Board, Chair of the Capital Punishment Committee, co-chair of the Committee on the Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers, and on numerous other committees, including International Human Rights, the Rule of Law Task Force, and the Mass Incarceration Task Force.
Mr. Faridi also serves on the boards of the Teak Fellowship, the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, the John Jay College Foundation, and the City University of New York School of Law, and is co-editor of Bloomberg’s Commercial Division Practice Guide.
Mr. Faridi received his B.A., summa cum laude, from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and his J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law. He clerked for Judge Jack B. Weinstein, Senior U.S. District Judge in the Eastern District of New York, and he taught commercial litigation as an adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law for five years.
Mr. Faridi follows in the footsteps of the late Judge Robert P. Patterson, a named partner of Patterson Belknap, who served as president of the New York City Bar from 1948-1950.
“I am humbled and honored to be nominated as president of the New York City Bar Association,” said Mr. Faridi in a press release issued by the City Bar. “I will do my part in advancing the mission of the Association: to equip and mobilize a diverse legal profession to practice with excellence, promote reform of the law, and uphold the rule of law and access to justice. I look forward to continuing my work alongside the board of directors, committee leaders, and the staff at the City Bar.”
We are honored that Muhammad has been nominated to join a long list of esteemed City Bar presidents,” said Dahlia Doumar, Patterson Belknap managing partner and co-chair. “He is an exceptional attorney and advocate for justice. Muhammad’s nomination reflects our firm’s proud history of public service by Patterson Belknap attorneys.”
If elected, Mr. Faridi will be the 71st president of the New York City Bar, one of the nation's largest, oldest, and most influential bar organizations. The election will take place at the City Bar’s annual meeting on May 21, 2024.
To read the New York City Bar’s announcement of Mr. Faridi’s nomination, please click here.
