Additional Materials
- Report: Ensuring Access to Justice for Unrepresented Court Users in the Virtual Court Era — and Beyond
- Webinar: Accessing Justice During COVID-19
- PowerPoint: Reimagining Access to Justice During COVID-19
- Infographic: Know Before You Go Fact Sheet
- First Thursday Video with Brooklyn Public Library: Surrogate’s Court and When Someone Dies
- First Thursday Video with Brooklyn Public Library: Family Court and Child Support
- Video: Accessing Justice During COVID-19: New York City Criminal Courts
- Form: New York City Virtual Uncontested Divorce Project
- Video: Franklin H. Williams Commission Virtual Town Hall
- Transcript: Family Courts in the Virtual Age Roundtable
Biographies
Hon. Edwina G. Mendelson was appointed to head the newly expanded New York State Unified Court System’s Office for Justice Initiatives in 2017, tasked with ensuring meaningful access to justice for all New Yorkers in civil, criminal and family courts, regardless of income, background, or special needs. To serve this mission, the Office for Justice Initiatives administers pro bono attorney and other volunteer programs, self-help services, Help Centers, and many other resources designed to serve unrepresented court users, including resources to assist those navigating virtual court operations ushered in by the Covid-19 crisis.
Additionally, Judge Mendelson leads the Equal Justice in Courts Initiative, a top priority for New York State Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, to implement the recommendations of Special Adviser on Equal Justice Jeh Johnson in his October 2020 report examining racial bias in the state court system.
Judge Mendelson also directs several juvenile and family justice initiatives, including the New York State Unified Court System’s Child Welfare Court Improvement Project, its Advisory Council on Child Fatalities, the ongoing implementation of the seminal law raising the age of criminal responsibility in New York State, and the Child Support and Guardianship Working Groups of the Unified Court System/New York State Bar Association’s COVID-19 Recovery Task Force. Additionally, as a member of Chief Judge DiFiore’s Commission to Reimagine the Future of New York’s Courts, Judge Mendelson serves on the Regulatory Innovation and Online Dispute Resolution Working Groups.
As of January 2021, Judge Mendelson now also oversees the Unified Court System’s Office of Policy & Planning, which is responsible for administering the state’s 343 problem-solving and accountability courts, including groundbreaking opioid courts, drug courts/judicial diversion parts, veterans’ treatment courts, mental health courts, human trafficking intervention courts, domestic violence courts, integrated domestic violence courts, young adult parts, juvenile treatment courts, community courts, and impaired driving courts. Each model has the advantage of specially trained judges and staff, dedicated dockets, intensive judicial monitoring, and coordination with outside
services and agencies. In addition, the Office of Policy & Planning oversees special projects and other endeavors providing guidance and support to the court system.
Judge Mendelson was appointed to the Court of Claims by Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2017 and remains active on the bench, conducting pro se trials in state correctional facilities. Judge Mendelson also serves in Supreme Court Criminal Term, New York County. Previously, she presided over New York County Supreme Court’s Youth Part, hearing cases of youth charged as adults.
Judge Mendelson first joined the court system as a Court Attorney-Referee in Queens County Family Court, after representing clients in New York City Housing Court, Family Court, and Supreme Court. She later became a Family Court Judge in 2003, the Queens County Supervising Family Court Judge in 2008, and a year later, was elevated to Administrative Judge of all New York City Family Courts.
Judge Mendelson, a graduate of CUNY Law School whose motto is “Law in the Service of Human Needs”, also holds a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, and has been an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Hofstra Law School. She maintains active membership and leadership positions in bar association and court committees advancing professional development and system improvement in the delivery and quality of justice services.
Prof. Troy A. McKenzie is Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. His research and teaching interests include bankruptcy, civil procedure, complex litigation, and the federal courts. He studies litigation and the institutions that shape it—particularly complex litigation that is resolved through the class action, bankruptcy, and other forms of aggregation. He serves as a faculty co-director of two NYU centers: the Institute of Judicial Administration and the Center on Civil Justice. He is also a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference and the Council of the American Law Institute.
From 2011-2015, McKenzie served, by appointment of the Chief Justice, as a reporter to the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States. From 2015-2017, he took a leave of absence from NYU to serve in the U.S. Department of Justice as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel.
McKenzie earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1997 from Princeton University and a law degree in 2000 from NYU, where he was an executive editor of the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. After law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Pierre N. Leval of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court of the United States. Before joining the NYU faculty in 2007, McKenzie was a litigation associate at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York.