Law Beat: Upstate benches called overwhelmingly white and male

Law Beat: Upstate benches called overwhelmingly white and male

11.18.2019

By Robert Gavin

The Times Union quoted President Greenberg on diversity in the judiciary. (may require subscription) 

State Supreme Court benches in the Capital Region and the rest of upstate New York are “overwhelmingly white and male” – for now.

So says New York State Bar Association President Hank Greenberg, but he is expecting a more diverse body of judges in both the Albany-based Third Department, which represents 28 counties, and Rochester-based Fourth Department, which encompasses western New York.

Greenberg told a joint panel of Senate and Assembly judiciary members on Wednesday that Chief Judge Janet DiFiore’s plans to overhaul the state’s antiquated court system “holds the potential of notably increasing the diversity of the Supreme Court bench outside New York City.”