February 4th Judicial Committee Minutes

Chair: Curtis Arluck

Co Chair: Louise Dankberg

Membership: Each Assembly District may be represented by one of its District Leaders.

The Judicial Committee chooses organizations which designates members to a screening panel for judicial candidates. Organizations designate panelists, and panelists review judicial candidates, without party input.

I: Panel Administrator Search

  • Candidates

    • Past administrators have been contacted and the committee is awaiting responses. A new Administrator interview date/time will need to be set due to the delay.

    • Committee members are welcome to submit candidates for Administrator.

    • A three year layover is required for Administrators and panelists. They may not serve back to back sessions.

  • Resolution

    • A past Administrator was contacted mid-meeting and accepted the invitation to serve as Administrator again.

    • Since this candidate has served in the past, and most committee members are familiar with him, the Judicial Committee voted for an expedited interview process which would not require a meeting of the whole committee (though everyone is invited)

    • If approved name of the Administrator will be revealed in the official public notice for Judge Applicants in the Law Journal and on ManhattanDems.org

    • The interview was tentatively scheduled for 2/10

II: Organization Outreach

  • Organizations which have agreed to designate a panelist

    • Asian Americans for Equality

    • Korean American Lawyers Assoc

    • LGBT Bar

    • Neighborhood Defenders of Harlem

    • NY State Defenders Assoc.

  • Organizations which have declined to designate a panelist

    • Columbia University Law School

  • All other organizations are pending a response

  • Requirement Review

    • At least 20 organizations should be represented

    • Organizations must be:

      • Non-profit

      • Sufficient affiliation with the County (Manhattan) (Usually satisfied by a local chapter)

      • Sufficient affiliation with the ideals of the Democratic Party

III: New Organization Applications

  • National Hispanic Bar Assoc.

    • Deputy VP Albert Barrueco, Attorney at Pepper Hamilton, addressed the committee

    • Organization wants to be considered for an invite to nominate a panelist

    • Local Chapter President is counsel to NYC Bar

    • Thousands of members nationally

    • Over one hundred members in the NYC area

  • Hispanic Bar invited by acclamation

IV: Organizational Designees

  • Alan Flacks submits Designee from Association of the Bar of City of New York (City Bar Assoc.)

  • Names of organization designees are not released prior to the convening of the panel to prevent lobbying by judicial applicants

V: Old Business (last week)

    • Committee voted to extend invitation to Nigerian Bar Assoc – but question: Does Nigerian bar have NY presence

      • Verified intent to invite Nigerian Lawyers Association not Nigerian Bar Association

      • Nigerian Lawyers Association found to have sufficient affiliation and invite extended by acclamation

    • Committee voted down extending invitation to National Bar Association (National African American bar)

      • The National Bar is represented in the NY region by Joseph Drayton

      • National Bar resubmitted by and voted up for extending an invitation by acclamation

VI: District vacancies in Judicial District 4, 6, 7

      • Judicial Screening Panels

        • District Leaders in the 6th, 7th and 9th are holding their own panels and soliciting groups for designees independently

          • The 9th is an incumbent judge and is non-competitive

        • The 4th is incorporating its screening panel with the County Independent Judicial Screening Panel

        • Judicial Applicants may go before multiple panels and all panels will use same application

VII: Current Timeline (subject to change)

    • 2/17 Law Journal and online Notice for Judicial applicants

    • 2/25 Designees appointed

    • 2/25 Applications begin being accepted

      • A unified application for all panels is suggested and agreed to

    • 3/9 Panel Convenes

    • 5/5 Panel reports out