Supports innovations in the provision of cost-effective civil legal services for the indigent.
In June 2006, the Board of Directors of The New York Bar Foundation established the Robert L. Haig Fund in honor of Robert L. Haig, Esq. The members of The Foundation’s Board made personal contributions to this Fund as a tribute to Mr. Haig for his leadership, dedication, guidance and support during his three-year term as President of The Foundation.
Robert Haig is a litigation partner with the law firm of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP in New York City. He is a former President of the New York County Lawyers’ Association. He has served as the Chair of the Committee on the Judiciary of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and also chaired that Association’s Council on Judicial Administration. Mr. Haig has served as a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Executive Committee, was the founder and first Chair of that Association’s Commercial and Federal Litigation Section, also chaired its Committee on Federal Courts and its Committee on Multi-Disciplinary Practice and the Legal Profession, and co-chaired its Task Force on the Evaluation of Candidates for Election to Judicial Office. He is a member of the New York State Commission on Judicial Nomination, a member of the American Law Institute, and a Director of the Atlantic Legal Foundation.
Mr. Haig was the Co-Chair of the Commercial Courts Task Force established by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye in 1995 to create and refine the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court (the nation’s first general trial court devoted exclusively to business litigation). He is now the Chair of the Commercial Division Advisory Council established by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman in 2013 to advise him on an ongoing basis about all matters involving and surrounding the Commercial Division, as well as to keep him apprised of developments in the business world that may affect the court system. On November 16, 2008, he was inducted as an Honorary Charter Member of the American College of Business Court Judges in recognition of his efforts to develop business courts in New York and many other states and countries.
Mr. Haig has written and lectured extensively on various litigation and dispute resolution topics. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the two definitive treatises on business litigation in federal and New York State courts: the sixteen volume treatise entitled Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts and the ten volume treatise entitled Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts. In addition, Mr. Haig is the Editor-in-Chief of the definitive treatise on relationships between inside and outside counsel for corporate clients: the seven volume treatise entitled Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel.