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Anta Cisse-Green installed as president of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association

July 6, 2020 Rob Abruzzese
Anta Cisse-Green, the associate general counsel and director of legal operations at NYU Langone Health, has become president of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association. Photos courtesy of the MBBA
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The Metropolitan Black Bar Association announced on Wednesday that Anta Cisse-Green has taken over as its new president for a two-year term.

Cisse-Green is associate general counsel at NYU Langone Medical Center and a graduate of Brooklyn Law School and NYU School of Law. Prior to working at the NYU Langone Medical Center, she was senior counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in the firm’s private client services section.

“The Metropolitan Black Bar Association is more important now than it has ever been,” Cisse-Green said. “We are a collective of Black community members who happen to be lawyers in all areas of government, law firms, in-house and solo practitioners.”

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Known for her pro bono work in the legal community, Cisse-Green has been a member of the MBBA since 2005 and was president-elect for two years under president Jason Clark and vice president of programs for three years under presidents Taa Grays and Paula Edgar. She has also served over the last two years as the leader of the MBBA’s Pro Bono Initiatives during the 2018-2020 term.

Anta Cisse-Green at the MBBA’s 2019 annual gala.

As president of the MBBA, she said that she plans on working closely with the officers and directors to revise and implement a five-year plan that will help the Association achieve its mission of advancing equality, aid the progress of people of color in the legal profession, address the legal issues facing the local community and foster the study of law and professional development of young lawyers and law school students.

“The issues I faced as an associate in big law are the same issues currently faced by many other Black attorneys and legal professionals — and by the Black attorneys that came before me. The MBBA provides Black attorneys with a place to support one another, address the unique issues they face as Black legal professionals, and also to work on initiatives geared toward the elimination of racial injustices that affect both the legal profession and the Black communities in which we live.”

Cisse-Green’s theme for her two-year term is LEAP into Excellence — or lead, engage, advocate and partner.

“The objective of [the theme] is to ensure that the powerful voice of the Black Bar is amplified so that we can guide our members, partners and supporters through these difficult times and, just as importantly, ensure the long-term sustainability of new and existing initiatives intended to address systemic racism in the legal profession and the Black community at large,” she said.

Cisse-Green was named in Crain’s 2019 Notable Women of Law, and in 2015 she received the Lawyer Who Leads by Example recognition from the New York Law Journal for her pro bono work.

Cisse-Green is also active in other bar associations and serves as a member of the attorney advisory panel for the Planning and Estates Law Project for the NYC Bar Association Justice Center, is the chair and vice-chair of various committees in the American Bar Association’s Real Property Trusts and Estates Section, and is a trustee of the Urban Resource Institute.

She is also a member of the board of directors for several not-for-profit organizations, including the Association of Black Women Attorneys, the Children’s Law Center and the Women’s Venture Fund.

The other officers who took over at the start of the month include Carl Forbes Jr., as president-elect, Paula Edgar, as treasurer, Malikah Fulton, as vice president of programs, Justina Rivera, as vice president of membership, Areal Allen-Stewart, as general counsel, and Shantal Sparks as secretary.

The new board of directors includes Nicole Lester Arrindell, Christopher Binns, Eric Cottle, Jomaire Crawford, Doralyn De Dios, Barbara Graves-Poller, Phillip Hamilton, Kevin Jordan, Eric Love, Wayne McKenszie, Inga O’Neale, Dawn Reid-Green, Asha Smith, Jenesha Tai, Mirlande Telfort, and Calvin Wingfield.


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