Anne Reynolds Copps of Albany and Gerald G. Paul of Flemming Zulack Williamson Zauderer will co-chair a new New York State Bar Association committee that will examine whether lawyers should get the option of being certified as “specialists” in various areas of practice.

Mark H. Alcott of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, the bar group’s president, said allowing specialists “would enhance the general public ability to identify the experts they need” for certain kinds of legal work.