Meet The Mayor's Judge Pickers

Mayor's Advisory Committee Plays Key Role in Screening Candidates
The New York Law Journal  -  December 12, 2011

An advisory committee of 19 attorneys plays a leading role in what Zachary Carter calls the "very, very arduous" task of recruiting highly qualified candidates for city judgeships and determining who will make the cut for presentation to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Mr. Bloomberg appoints nine members of the mayor's advisory committee on the judiciary, the state's chief judge appoints four, the presiding justices of the First and Second departments appoint two each and law school deans appoint two on a rotating basis. It is a "working committee" with members divvying up the major chores for investigating individual candidates. After a preliminary screening by staff, members examine candidates' court decisions and other writings, scrutinize background checks and disciplinary decisions and interview as many as 20 to 40 practitioners who are familiar with the work and temperament of the potential judges. Committee members are not paid for their work. Members serve two-year terms, but the committee's chair and co-chair have served since 2002, when Mr. Bloomberg took office. Following is a list of the current members.

Mayor's Appointees

• Zachary W. Carter, the chair, is a partner at Dorsey & Whitney, where he is co-chair of the white-collar crime and civil fraud practice group. He is a former Eastern District U.S. attorney, a federal magistrate judge and a city Criminal Court judge.
• Robert G.M. Keating is vice president of strategic initiatives at Pace University. He serves as dean of the New York State Judicial Institute and director of the Center for Judicial Studies. He has served as a state administrative judge and the city's criminal justice coordinator.
• Barry A. Cozier is a member of Epstein Becker & Green in its national litigation group. He has served as an associate justice of the Appellate Division, Second Department, a justice on the Commercial Division and a Family Court judge. He also is a former deputy chief administrative judge for New York City courts.
• James A. Dollard is a partner at Marrazzo & Dollard, a general law partnership concentrating in real estate, estates and family law. He is a past president of the Richmond County Bar Association.
• Beth Kaufman is a litigation partner at Schoeman, Updike &  Kaufman. A member of the council of the ABA Section on litigation, she has served on the executive committee of the New York City Bar and has chaired that association's Committee on the Judiciary.
• Chanwoo Lee is a criminal defense attorney who was formerly an attorney with the Legal Aid Society, criminal division. She is a former president of the Queens County Bar Association.
• Marvin Ray Raskin is in private practice with a concentration in criminal law and disciplinary matters since 1977 after working as a prosecutor with the Bronx District Attorney's Office. He is a past president of the Bronx County Bar Association.
• Crystal L. Screen is a solo practitioner focusing on family law matters. She was previously with the Legal Aid Society's juvenile rights division. Ms. Screen is the president of the Assigned Counsel Association of Queens Family Court and serves on various court committees.
• Mara T. Thorpe is a partner at Cohen Lans specializing in family law. She is a former Family Court judge and former partner at Morrison Cohen Singer & Weinstein.

Chief Judge's Appointees

• Dolly Caraballo is a member of Caraballo & Mandell, a general practice firm specializing in real estate and commercial litigation and transactions. She is the past president of the Puerto Rican Bar Association.
• Michael Corriero is executive director and founder of the New York Center for Juvenile Justice. After working as a prosecutor and defense attorney, he was a Criminal Court and Court of Claims/acting Supreme Court justice. He also is the former director of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of New York City.
• Felice K. Shea is a retired Supreme Court justice. Before election to the bench, she was a staff attorney at the Harlem Branch of the Legal Aid Society. After retirement, she returned to Legal Aid as a volunteer in the juvenile rights division. Ms. Shea was a member of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct and serves as a referee for the commission.
• Peter J.W. Sherwin is a partner in Proskauer Rose's litigation and dispute resolution department. He is active in numerous bar associations and previously served as chair of the Committee on Lesbian and Gay Rights of the New York City Bar.

First Department

• Austin V. Campriello is a partner at Bryan Cave. He has held numerous government appointments in his career and served as chief of the Rackets Bureau at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
• William J. Snipes is a litigation partner at Sullivan & Cromwell. He is also a member of the city bar's Committee on Minorities in the Courts and the former co-chair of the Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts.

Second Department

• Milton Mollen is counsel to Herrick, Feinstein, a former deputy mayor for public safety and presiding justice of the Appellate Division, Second Department. Mr. Mollen also chaired a special commission in the 1990s to investigate corruption in the NYPD.
• Michael Young is a litigation partner with Willkie Farr & Gallagher specializing in securities and financial reporting. He is a frequent author on the subjects of financial reporting, audit committee effectiveness and the role and responsibilities of the independent auditor.

Law School Deans

• Jennifer Baum is an assistant professor of clinical legal education and the director of the child advocacy clinic at St. John's University School of Law. After beginning her career in private practice, she joined the Legal Aid Society, where she litigated law reform cases.
• Nitza M. Escalera is assistant dean of student affairs at Fordham University School of Law. She also teaches a seminar titled Negotiation and Mediation: A Cross-Cultural Perspective and a course on Race and Ethnicity at John Jay College.

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