Judicial Section

Hon. Robert G. Main, Jr.

Award Winner- Distinguished Jurist Award 2022

Pictured: Hon. Robert G. Main, Jr. seated beneath the portrait of his father, Robert G Main.

Judge Main was born in Malone, New York, on May 12, 1951, the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Robert Gordon Main and Ann Manson Main. His father died on February 2, 1998. His mother died on May 18, 2017. He has spent his entire life in Malone, attending local schools and graduated from Franklin Academy in 1969. He was the salutatorian of his graduating class. He received his A.B. degree in political science from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, in 1973. Following the completion of his undergraduate degree, Judge Main attended Albany Law School of Union University where he was awarded a Juris Doctor degree in 1976. The following year he was admitted to the bar in New York State and for the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York.

Following a long family tradition, he is a fifth-generation attorney, following all but one of his paternal forefathers in six generations in the practice of law. His grandfather and great-grandfather served as Franklin County District Attorneys, and his father served in the New York State Assembly and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division for many years. Following his admission to the bar in 1977, Judge Main practiced general civil law in Malone with the firm of Mullarney & Holland and served as Malone Village Attorney. In 1980 he and Donald J. Holland, Esq. formed a professional corporation and practiced law as Holland & Main, P.C. Judge Main left the private practice after he was elected Franklin County Judge in 1987.

He was re-elected to the bench in 1997, 2007 and 2017. He also serves as Surrogate, Acting Family Court Judge, and Acting Supreme Court Justice. Judge Main founded both the Adult Treatment Court and the Family Treatment Courts in Franklin County. He also presides over the Integrated Domestic Violence part of Supreme Court. He is the senior trial judge in the Fourth Judicial District and the longest tenured Surrogate in the state.

In 2019 New York State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Janet DiFiore appointed Judge Main as Co-Chair of the Tribal Court Committee serving the New York Federal-State-Tribal Courts and Indian Nations Justice Forum. As a member of the Forum, he spearheaded a local pre-trial supervision initiative which attracted national attention.

In addition to his duties and responsibilities in Franklin County, Judge Main has sat in all but two counties in the Fourth Judicial District. He has sat regularly in St. Lawrence County, currently presiding over its Judicial Diversion Program. He was also assigned to Supreme Court in Monroe County.

He served several terms on the Third Department’s Law Guardian Advisory Committee by appointment of Appellate Division Presiding Justice Anthony Cardona, and he was a member of the Family Court’s Curriculum Committee which determined the courses to be offered Family Court Judges at the annual judicial seminars.

At the direction of Administrative Judge Jan H. Plumadore, during the 2007 renovation project at the Franklin County Courthouse, Judge Main was responsible for assisting in the design of the expanded space the court system acquired and the redesign of its original space. Four modern and bright courtrooms were built or renovated together with age-appropriate waiting rooms and space for private attorney-client conferences. Generally, the public areas of the court system were brought closer to the entrances of the building and made more accessible to the public. Upon completion of the project, he has fostered the use of court space for the display of public art.

Judge Main is particularly proud of the staff of professionals who have worked in the court system in Franklin County and of the fact that, despite the growth in volume of cases over the years he has presided over the courts, the local court staff increased in size only marginally.

He is a communicant of St. André Bessette parish in Malone (formerly Notre Dame Church) where he serves as a Lector and Eucharistic Minister. He was a parish trustee and is a parish council member; he was president of the parish council during the 1980s. He also served as a member of the Diocese of Ogdensburg’s Pastoral Council and Long Range Planning Committee and is a member of the Bishop’s Heritage Circle.

Prior to his election to judicial office, Judge Main was active in Republican party affairs. He was a committeeman and vice chair of the Franklin County Republican Committee. He served as an alternate delegate at the 1984 Republican National Convention. Although a Republican in politics, Judge Main was particularly proud to have been named as village attorney by a Democratic mayor and to have been nominated by the Republican, Democratic and Conservative parties when he ran for re-election in 1997.

Beyond his official duties, Judge Main has been actively involved in the community, particularly in the area of health care. He is serving his second tenure as chair of the Board of Directors of the Alice Hyde Medical Center. During his first tenure as chair, the local medical center expanded its services to include renal dialysis, radiation oncology, and cardiac rehabilitation. Outreach clinics were established in Chateaugay, Moira, and Fort Covington. The medical center campus in Malone was expanded to include the construction of the Ambulatory Surgery Center which his family helped to endow and which bears his father’s name. As an emeritus trustee he maintained a key interest in the provision of emergency medical services and participated in the process leading to the participation of the medical center in the EMS1 or “flycar” service. He also served as president of the Farrar Home, an adult home, for twenty years, and led its expansion from a fourteen to thirty bed facility with the construction of a new wing. He was also a member of the corporation of Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital for a number of years. He is a member of the Academic Board of Trustees of Franklin Academy and chaired its scholarship committee. He is a member of the board of Morningside Cemetery.

He is a member and past secretary of the Franklin County Bar Association and a past member of the New York State Bar Association. He is also a member of the Malone Lodge of Elks and the Franklin County Museum and Historical Society. He is a former member of the Malone Kiwanis Club which he served as a director and editor of its weekly “Kronikles” for many years. During the 1980s Judge Main was a member of the adjunct faculty of North Country Community College where he taught business law.

Judge Main resides in Malone.

Hon. Kathie E. Davidson

Dean of the New York State Judicial Institute

Award Winner- Advancement of Judicial Diversity Award 2022

Pictured: Hon. Kathie E. Davidson

On July 7, 2021 Chief Judge Janet DiFiore and Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks designated Hon. Kathie E. Davidson as Dean of the New York State Judicial Institute, a statewide judicial education and research center focused on the latest developments in the law and other disciplines that influence the law. As Dean, Judge Davidson oversees the creation and delivery of training seminars for newly elected and appointed Unified Court System (UCS) judges, continuing education programs for UCS judges and lawyers, and cooperative education programs with state and federal judicial systems, legal academics and other interested stakeholders.

Since 2018, Judge Davidson had been serving as Administrative Judge for the Ninth Judicial District, which encompasses Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties, and was responsible for implementing and enforcing all policies, rules and directives of the Chief Judge and managing day-to-day administrative support and supervision of all 1150 judicial and nonjudicial staff, trial courts, and agencies within the district.

In 2007, Judge Davidson was appointed as the Supervising Judge of the Family Courts in the Ninth Judicial District, by the then Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman. Judge Davidson was elected as a Family Court Judge in November of 2003, and began her Judicial career presiding over Juvenile Delinquency, PINS, Family Offense Petitions, Custody and Visitation cases, and continued to preside over Abuse and Neglect cases, the Integrated Youth Court other related Family Court matters.

Prior to being elected a Family Court judge, from 1998-2003 Judge Davidson was a Deputy County Attorney with the Westchester County Law Department. Some of her accomplishments were the implementation of the Westchester County Laws §308, The Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise Law. She was a member of the County’s first delegation invited to receive training in Hate Crimes, at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, California. Judge Davidson was an attorney for the child with the Juvenile Rights Practice of the Legal Aid Society (formerly known as the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society) in Bronx County. She was an investigative attorney with the New York State Department of Education and private practitioner specializing in Family Law.
The Judge serves as a Commissioner of the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission that promotes racial and ethnic fairness in the courts, and as a member of the New York State Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children, the Commission on Parental Legal Representation, and the Committee on Families and the Law, in addition to holding membership in numerous professional and volunteer organizations.

Judge Davidson earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at Simmons University (formerly Simmons College) in Boston, Massachusetts, and her Juris Doctor at Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Howard University Alumni Association.

Judge Davidson was the first African-American woman appointed as Supervising Judge in the Ninth Judicial District, was the first woman to be appointed Administrative Judge in the Ninth Judicial District, and was the first African-American to be appointed Administrative Judge outside of New York City.