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