Koskoff attorney Ryan Daugherty represented the firm at National Bar Association’s 100th Annual Convention, held July 26-August 1, 2025. The National Bar Association is the nation’s oldest and largest global network of predominantly Black American attorneys and judges. The NBA represents the interests of approximately 67,000 lawyers, judges, law professors, legal practitioners, and law students worldwide.
Attorney Daugherty shares his experience joining this milestone event:
Because Black lawyers were excluded from membership in the American Bar Association (“ABA”) and most local majority bar associations across the country, 12 Black lawyers met in Des Moines, Iowa, on August 1, 1925, to spearhead the establishment of a national network of Black lawyers committed to the pursuit of equal justice under law. They founded the National Bar Association (NBA). Last week, I had the honor of celebrating the National Bar Association’s 100th Annual Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
During my time at the convention, I found all the events educational and inspiring, but the Presidential Showcases were exceptional. Listening to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s remarks about her historical swearing-in ceremony reminded me of something I heard from another trailblazer named Barack Obama.
President Obama once said that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous quote that “the arc of the moral universe is long but bends towards justice” was accurate but noted that the arc doesn’t bend on its own, but that it bends because good people help it bend that way. Justice Jackson’s remarks reminded me of all the good people that pushed the arc of the moral universe towards justice and how I, too, have a responsibility to push that arc towards justice.