New York City Bar Association Convenes Task Force
On Judicial Selection in Response to Gleeson Decision

The New York City Bar Association announced today the creation of a task force charged with issuing recommendations on improving the judicial selection process in New York state. The Task Force will study judicial selection reform proposals against the backdrop of the recent decision by Judge John Gleeson that found the current judicial convention process for selecting New York Supreme Court Justices unconstitutional. The Task Force will then further develop an action plan for implementing the Association’s proposals.

“While the City Bar is not necessarily in favor of judicial primaries, the Gleeson decision provides an excellent opportunity to discuss and reform a system that is quickly losing the public’s confidence,” said New York City Bar Association President Betsy Plevan. “Ultimately, the task force will make recommendations as to how the state should move forward to ensure that the citizens of New York obtain the high quality judiciary to which they are entitled.”

For decades, the City Bar has been an active voice in the call to change the process from an election to a method of appointment using citizen committees to select the most qualified candidates. “Despite our preference for merit appointment, we are aware that political realities require the Task Force to also consider the complex question of whether other changes, such as open primaries or modified judicial conventions, could be positive reforms for the present day,” said Robert Joffe, chair of the City Bar’s new Judicial Selection Task Force. “We are grateful that the Gleeson decision has opened up discussion on this topic, but the New York State Legislature must be careful to ensure this opportunity is used for true reform and not to further infuse money and politics into the system.”

Task Force members include lawyers from corporate practice, academia, the government nonprofit sectors and private practice. The Task Force members are:

• Robert D. Joffe, Chair, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
• Nicki Kerameus, Secretary, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
• Terri D. Austin, Domestic Brokerage Group, American International Companies
• Hon. Deborah A. Batts, Federal Judge, Southern District of New York
• Sheila Birnbaum, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP
• Richard Cashman, Heller Ehrman LLP
• Katharine T. Cobb, New York County District Attorney's Office
• Beth L. Kaufman, Schoeman Updike & Kaufman LLP
• Roger J. Maldonado, Balber Pickard Battistoni Maldonado & Van Der Tuin PC
• Lawrence A. Mandelker, Kantor Davidoff Wolfe Mandelker & Kass PC
• Maria Park, Kings County District Attorney's Office
• Richard Rifkin , NYS Attorney General's Office
• Scott A. Rosenberg, The Legal Aid Society, Civil Division
• David M. Rudenstine, Dean, Cardozo School of Law
• Jay G. Safer, LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae LLP
• Fern Schair, American Arbitration Association

About the Association
The Association of the Bar of the City of New York (www.nycbar.org) was founded in 1870, and since then has been dedicated to maintaining the high ethical standards of the profession, promoting reform of the law, and providing service to the profession and the public.

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