The New York County Lawyers Association was founded in 1908, and at the time of its founding, the only existing bar association in Manhattan precluded some lawyers from membership by virtue of ethnicity, religion, gender and race. Although other factors contributed to the atmosphere that produced the new association, none was as strong as "selective membership." Not only were large groups of lawyers denied affiliation with a bar association, but independent perspectives on the judicial system were also curtailed by the reluctance of a few large law firms to facilitate change. Throughout its history, NYCLA's bedrock principles have been the inclusion of all who wish to join and the active pursuit of legal system reform.
