Manhattan commercial judge urges attorneys to use the Court of Claims and join the bench at NYCLA ceremony
A Manhattan commercial division judge urged other commercial lawyers to consider the Court of Claims as a way to join the bench in his remarks at a New York County Lawyers Association Law Day event on Wednesday.
“It’s more attainable than you might think,” acting Manhattan Commercial Division Supreme Court Justice Joel M. Cohen said during the event at Club 101 in Midtown.
Cohen made the remarks at a NYCLA event, in which he was honored with the Justice Louis J. Capozzoli Gavel Award in recognition of his contributions to the bench. He was recognized alongside Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits of New York County, who received a certificate for 25 Years of Distinguished Judicial Service to the courts.
After serving as a trial lawyer on antitrust and intellectual property issues, Cohen was appointed to the Court of Claims by Governor Andrew Cuomo in June 2018. Shortly after he was appointed he was designated an Acting Supreme Court Justice by the chief administrative judge assigned to the Commercial Division, New York County.
Cohen used his remarks in a room of lawyers and judicial colleagues to spread the word of the makeshift appointment system through which Court of Claims Judges are regularly appointed to other parts of the state Supreme Court.
“I’m here to urge a more direct way to pay it back and to pay it forward — that is, for at least a few of you experienced members of the commercial bar to consider devoting the latter portion of your careers to joining the judiciary,” he said, addressing the lawyers in the audience. “There are ways to make that happen that you may not know about.”
Cohen said that he would be happy to connect lawyers to colleagues of his who undertook an effort to get on the Supreme Court bench through the normal process of running in a judicial election, but he focused his remarks instead on the state Court of Claims, a court through which members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate.
That court, he said consists of two parts. The first are judges who staff the Court of Claims itself, which, among other things, handles claims against the state of New York.
That work only accounts for about a third of the 90 or so statutory positions on the court. The remaining 60 or so judges on the court, once appointed, are immediately reassigned to a wide variety of judicial roles throughout the state.
“Many of them like me are designated as acting justices of the Supreme Court literally the night you’re sworn in,” Cohen said, adding that this process has served as a way to draw into the judiciary specialized practitioners who for one reason or another, may not find their way to the judiciary, such as former prosecutors or criminal defense lawyers with a background in complex criminal cases.
At the event, the other honoree, Lebovits, said he was humbled to be recognized by the bar association.
“I’m so grateful for the kindness and the work that everybody put into evaluating me and for all the other judges — I couldn’t be happier to be honored by NYCLA, which has been so important to my life for so many years,” Lebovits said.
