Thomas O. Rice

Mr. Rice served as president of the now more than 78,000 member New York State Bar Association, the nation’s largest voluntary bar association, from 1999 to 2000. He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1969, and subsequently, to the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, United States Circuit Courts of Appeal for the Second and Eleventh Circuits, United States Tax Court, and Supreme Court of the United States.

Mr. Rice has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at St. John’s University School of Law, Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, and Long Island University Graduate School of Business Administration.

Mr. Rice is a graduate of Fordham University, St. John’s University School of Law, and New York University School of Law from which he received an LL.M. He concentrates in corporate and commercial, banking, real estate, and trusts and estates law. He has substantial experience in financial institutions regulatory compliance, the structuring of complex financial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, all aspects of real estate acquisition, ownership and financing, and planning the preservation and transfer of wealth.

In addition to his service as president, Mr. Rice served as treasurer and as a district vice president of The New York State Bar Association. He is also a member of the Nassau County Bar Association and a former assistant district attorney for Kings County.

Mr. Rice maintains a commitment to various community organizations, including the Catholic Child Care Society of the Diocese of Brooklyn, where he served on the board of trustees, and the executive committee of the Brooklyn Diocese’s wills and estates planning program. He previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of The New York Bar Foundation. He is also a former member of the Council of Regents of St. Francis College, Brooklyn, and has served as a member of the boards of trustees of the Brooklyn Bar Association, Xaverian High School and The Long Island Philharmonic Orchestra.