Celebrating Our History: Thomas Newman
5.22.2026
In honor of our 150th anniversary, we asked longtime, involved members for their recollections of the New York State Bar Association.
Thomas Newman, chair of the Committee on Courts of Appellate Jurisdiction from 1981 to 1985, reflected on the longtime debate on the caseload of the Court of Appeals.
“Before 1985, the court was hearing and disposing over 700 cases a year – which was an enormous workload. So, there was a move to change the jurisdiction by eliminating two things – you no longer had an appeal as of right just because there was a dissent, or because there was a modification [to the award] of some sort. You had to seek leave to appeal. As chairman of the Committee on the Appellate Division at that time, I was authorized by members of the committee to oppose that. We took the position that there are many appeals, but a lot of those could be disposed of very quickly because they were appeals that didn’t really require that much work by the justices. You could easily see what the right result would be.
“I debated that issue before the committee. I appeared in Albany before the state bar, and I set forth our views on that. We lost our argument – after 1986, it declined.”
While the total caseload of the Court of Appeals declined over the next few decades, current Chief Judge Rowan Wilson has directed the Court of Appeals to return to taking on more cases.
Do you have a special memory you want to share in honor of our 150th anniversary? Email rmelnitsky@nysba.org and your memory may be featured on our website.
