NY Appellate Judge Quits, Needs More Money

NY Judge Quits Over Lack of a Raise, Rejoins 750-Lawyer Firm
The New York Law Journal by Daniel Wise - August 4, 2009

Appellate Division, Second Department Justice Robert A. Spolzino, citing the fact that state judges have not received a raise in more than a decade, will rejoin the law firm he left when he became a Supreme Court justice in 2001. At the end of September, Justice Spolzino, who has been on the Second Department since 2004, again will become a partner at Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker, a 750-lawyer firm, where he will litigate and expand the firm's commercial and appellate practices. In a statement issued yesterday, Justice Spolzino said he would never have left a "job I love so much if it were not for the judicial salary situation in New York." Eight years ago, Justice Spolzino recalled, he and his family realized that joining the bench would entail a financial sacrifice, but with no raise since then "I can no longer ask them to do that." At the Appellate Division, Justice Spolzino earns $144,000. At Wilson Elser, where he will work in the White Plains office, he said, "I will be paid an amount appropriate for someone with 25 years of legal experience."