On February 14, 2024, during the nation’s celebration of Black History Month, oral arguments at the Appellate Division, First Department were heard by panel of African American women justices. The five members of the historic panel were Presiding Justice Hon. Dianne T. Renwick and Associate Justices Hon. Troy K. Webber; Hon. Tanya R. Kennedy; Hon. … Continued
The celebration of Black History Month in this country has evolved and grown since 1926 when historian, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), launched Negro History Week in February 1926 to highlight the progress of blacks in America since the end of slavery, and to … Continued
In September 2015, I was among a few individuals from the legal community who attended a daylong summit where various leaders from the corporate, entertainment, and sports world gathered to learn how to effectively market their products and services to millennials. I learned that millennials (born 1981-1996 as per the U.S. Census Bureau), who constitute … Continued
Hello everyone! I am most honored to serve as your Presiding Member of the Judicial Section and to succeed the extraordinary Presiding Members who served before me. I would especially like to thank Hon. James P. Murphy, former Presiding Member, who encouraged me and invited me to serve as the Section’s Treasurer in 2019, and … Continued
“For Sylvia Mendez, a life-long quest for equality began when she was just eight years old. Outraged that their daughter had to attend a segregated school, Sylvia’s parents linked arms with other Latino families to fight injustice in a California federal court in a case that would pave the way for Brown v. Board of … Continued
Three Different Entities, With Very Different Powers and Purposes Let’s start with a bit of disambiguation, illustrated in Figure 1 below. We are the co-chairs and staff counsel of the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics. As the name suggests, the Advisory Committee provides ethics advice to judges, justices and quasi-judicial officials of the NYS Unified Court … Continued
I view my presidency as an opportunity for our association to tackle issues that are important to us individually as attorneys and judges, and for the profession itself. Most of them do not have easy solutions, which is why we need to address them head on. The New York State Bar Association has long supported … Continued
On August 4, 2023, the Hon. Justice Ebiowei Tobi, Justice of the Court of Appeals in Nigeria, came to Cooperstown to tour the Otsego County Supreme Court Courthouse. He related that in Nigeria, the Court of Appeals is directly below the Nigerian Supreme Court and hears appeals from all lower state and federal courts. Justice … Continued
Hon. Gerald Lebovits is an acting Supreme Court justice in New York County and an adjunct professor at Columbia, Fordham, and NYU law schools. He thanks Cole Rosenblum, his judicial extern from Brooklyn Law School, for his research. New York is unique in the United States in the breadth of civil interlocutory appeals that parties may … Continued
At a recent meeting of the Council of Judicial Associations held at the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Department, Associate Justice Barbara Kapnick asked why so few upstate justices and judges support the New York State Bar Association. I’m not quite sure what I said, but I know it was not the thoughtful, … Continued