Blog - Page 11 of 17 - Historical Society of the New York Courts

Get to Know: Hon. Peter Tom

May 23, 2018October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Appellate Division Judges, Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, New York State Judges, Oral Histories

In part two of our two-part celebration of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month (part one is here!), we get to know more about Hon. Peter Tom. Originally interviewed by Society President, Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt, for our 2017 gala film Get to Know the Four Presiding Justices of the NYS Appellate Divisions when he served as Acting Presiding Justice of the First Department, Justice Tom spoke about his upbringing and burgeoning interest in a law career.

Justice Tom currently serves as Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department. He began his career as a judge in the Housing Court of the City of New York over 30 years ago, where he was the first Asian-American appointed to the court. Justice Tom is also the first Asian-American to win the New York City Golden Gloves Boxing Championship.

In this film, Justice Tom talks about his years as a young immigrant in tough NYC neighborhoods, his amateur boxing career, and his career trajectory to the First Department. This mini-oral history offers an insightful look at a prolific member of New York State’s bench.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKMnhwtgejQ&w=560&h=315]

Get to Know: Hon. Randall T. Eng

May 9, 2018October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, New York Legal History, New York State Judges, Oral Histories1 Comment

May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, and last year, the Society had the terrific fortune to interview two pioneering Asian-Americans in the New York State Judiciary – Hon. Randall T. Eng and Hon. Peter Tom – for its 2017 gala film Get to Know the Four Presiding Justices of the NYS Appellate Divisions. Interviewed by Society President Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt, both Justice Eng and Justice Tom gave insight into their lives and careers in these mini oral histories.

We start this celebration of Asian-Americans in the law with Hon. Randall T. Eng. Justice Eng retired after more than three decades on the bench, having been the first Asian-American appointed to the Criminal Court of the City of New York in 1983. Most recently, in another first, Justice Eng served as Presiding Justice of the Second Department. In addition to his judicial service, Justice Eng was a member of the New York Army National Guard from 1970 to 2004.

In this film, Justice Eng reflects on his family background and how he was drawn to the law at an early age, as well as how he had to deal with stereotypes as he progressed in his career. This film provides a fascinating personal look at one of New York’s top jurists.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC907JaZXic&w=560&h=315]

Drawing Circles & Hexagons Upon the Square: NY Civic Center & Progressive-Era Reform in the U.S.

April 25, 2018October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, New York Legal History, Public Events1 Comment

Photo: 1913 postcard showing original design of the New York County Courthouse by Boston architect Guy Lowell

On February 27, the Society held History of Foley Square: New York Legal Landmarks & Civic Reform at the New York City Bar Association. This public program described the migration of court buildings to Foley Square, architectural concerns surrounding the Square’s creation, and the role of city planner George McAneny in this development. Robert Pigott, Esq., Prof. Jon Ritter, and Prof. Charles Starks. Second Circuit Judge Hon. Dennis Jacobs joined the panel discussion after the presentations, which was moderated by our President Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt.

If you didn’t have a chance to come to the event, which drew a mix of lawyers, judges, historians, architects, and genealogists, you’re in luck! We filmed the entire program, and in a series of three blog posts, we will post the three presentations along with a little background information. This is the second of three.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUwuz2SAfK4]

From City Hall Park to Foley Square: Government Buildings Take a Step Uptown

March 28, 2018October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, New York Legal History, Public Events1 Comment

On February 27, the Society held History of Foley Square: New York Legal Landmarks & Civic Reform at the New York City Bar Association. This public program described the migration of court buildings to Foley Square, architectural concerns surrounding the Square’s creation, and the role of city planner George McAneny in this development. Robert Pigott, Esq., Prof. Jon Ritter, and Prof. Charles Starks presented. Second Circuit Judge Hon. Dennis Jacobs joined the panel discussion after the presentations, which was moderated by our President Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt.

If you didn’t have a chance to come to the event, which drew a mix of lawyers, judges, historians, architects, and genealogists, you’re in luck! We filmed the entire program, and in a series of three blog posts, we will post the three presentations along with a little background information. This is the first of three.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7rtkraJeRw]

Education Impact

March 14, 2018October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Bard High School Early College, Education, George Jackson Academy, Judith S. Kaye Fellow, Notable Cases

Photo: Middle schoolers gain insight into New York’s legal history. Courtesy of photographer Editha Mesina & BHSEC

As the weather gets warmer and students head into spring break, we thought we’d share the thoughts of some of the administrators and teachers in our partner middle and high schools. Aisha Lloyd Williams is the Associate Head of School of George Jackson Academy, a middle school for underserved boys in lower Manhattan. William H. Hinrichs is the Dean of Academic Life at Bard Early Colleges, and the Society has partnered with Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) since 2010 on their lower Manhattan and Queens campuses. These schools have hosted our Judith S. Kaye Teaching Fellows in a program that was established to fund a visiting scholar or faculty member to develop and teach a semester-long course on topics related to the role of the courts in establishing and maintaining democracy in both the State and the nation. You can read about our first Fellow Dr. Julia Rose Kraut and her experiences here and here!

Aisha Lloyd Williams reflects on how the Judith S. Kaye Teaching Fellowship enriches her students:

George Jackson Academy has benefitted greatly from our partnership with the Historical Society of the NY Courts (HSNYC). Our students have been able to learn about the structure and functions of the Judicial Branch of government in New York, meet officers of the courts, visit actual courtrooms, and visit the District Attorney’s office. During their HSNYC class, students are able to engage in a rich dialogue about past court cases, laws, and make connections to themselves and the world around them.

William H. Hinrichs similarly reflects on the nearly decade long partnership between the Society and BHSEC:

Thanks to the Judith S. Kaye Fellowship, BHSEC students have been able to take classes with well-known scholars in New York history and New York law, gaining firsthand exposure to trends in legal thinking, the centrality of New York legal history to the understanding of American legal history and to the larger legal questions that concern us today. These courses also gave students a general foundation in the law, which they would not have had otherwise prior to graduation. Many students in the inaugural classes from Professor Julia Rose Kraut and from the current fellow, Anna Lind-Guzik, report a new or increased interest in pursuing careers in the law due to taking courses with these HSNYC fellows.

Women Pioneers: Women Leaders Reflect on their Journeys in our Oral History Project

March 1, 2018October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Court of Appeals Judges, Judith S. Kaye, New York Legal History, Women & the Law, Women History Month

March is Women’s History Month, and we’ve been privileged to collect the oral histories of some of the pioneering women in New York law. These are Hon. Judith S. Kaye, the first woman judge on the Court of Appeals as well as the first woman Chief Judge; Charlotte Smallwood-Cook, the first woman elected District Attorney in the State; and Helaine M. Barnett, the first woman to be appointed full-time as Legal Services Corporation President. During their oral history sessions, these women reflected on the journeys that brought them to their being the “first,” and we provide excerpts here.

Hon. Judith S. Kaye, on breaking into law firms after graduation:

[T]he more I got rejected, the more it became absolutely imperative that I get into one of those Wall Street, you know, white shoe law firms. I mean I just wasn’t going to take no for answer and that’s all I was getting, was no for an answer, so that made life interesting.

So here I am, back at the firm of Casey, Lane & Mittendorf, for my second interview, the only second interview that was offered to me by anyone. The person who greeted me was… a Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Robert Sweet. In fact, he was a member of this law firm, such a small world. But when I came into Bob Sweet’s office and he said his partners insisted that he make this offer to me, of employment, which sounded already nice to me, I didn’t know what the negative was. He said he genuinely hoped I would turn down the offer, he found it offensive. The offer was that they would pay the going rate for a man, for one of my male classmates. I think at the time it was like $7,200 a year, that’s what it was, but they would pay me $6,400. I turned that down… I did not feel that I deserved to be treated like a second-class citizen. I did fulfill Judge Sweet’s wish and turned the offer down right then and there.

Judge Jane Bolin

February 21, 2018April 3, 2020Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Black History Month, New York Legal History, Women & the Law

This article was written by David L. Goodwin. It was first published in the Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook. David is a Staff Attorney at Appellate Advocates. He is a co-chair of the Young Lawyers Committee of The Historical Society of the New York Courts.

Photo: Judge Jane Bolin

Dear Jane,

You’re one of the reasons the courts for children are a greater hope than some people say. You’re one of the dedicated ones.[1]

Born and raised in Poughkeepsie, but with a career in the five boroughs of New York City, Jane Matilda Bolin (1908–2007) is best known for a particular “first” of groundbreaking magnitude. She holds the honor of being the first African-American judge in the entire United States, joining the bench of New York City’s Domestic Relations Court in 1939. Her appointment by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, which came as some surprise to Bolin herself — summoned with her husband to an audience with the mayor at the 1939 World’s Fair, she was not informed of the mayor’s intentions in advance — made “news around the world.”[2]

About that news: in announcing this historical judgeship, some outlets hedged the call, if ever so slightly. The Chicago Defender, which “chronicled and catalyzed [the African-American] community’s greatest accomplishments for nearly a century,”[3] proudly announced that La Guardia had “smashed a precedent for the entire United States” because Bolin was “thought to be the first Race woman judge to be appointed in this country.”[4] About two months later, the Defender had eliminated the qualifier, describing Judge Bolin as the “first Race woman to serve as a judge in the history of America.”[5] And despite the shifting nature of historical inquiry, her title has held firm; on the sad occasion of her obituary, she was still, resolutely, “the first black woman in the United States to become a judge.”[6]

Judge Bolin served with distinction, reappointed to the bench by three different mayors — O’Dwyer in 1949 (although not without some politicking), Wagner in 1959, and Lindsay in 1969[7] — while weathering the reorganization of the Domestic Relations Court into the Family Court in 1962.[8] She retired in 1979, but only reluctantly; in an interview conducted when Judge Bolin was in her early 80s, she made clear that, were it up to her, she would still be serving on the Family Court.[9]

History of Foley Square: Robert Pigott Talks About Upcoming Society Program for Amici Podcast

February 14, 2018October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Amici Podcast, New York Legal History, Public Events

This blog entry was written by John Caher, the Unified Court System’s senior advisor for strategic and technical communications. It discusses his recent interview with Robert Pigott about The Historical Society of the New York Courts’ upcoming program History of Foley Square: NY Legal Landmarks & Civic Reform on Feb. 27 at 6:30 PM at the NYC Bar Association. The interview was converted into an “Amici” Podcast, one of a series produced by the court system and maintained at http://www.nycourts.gov/admin/amici/index.shtml.

Photo: Foley Square Postcard, July 1939

How wonderfully ironic and deliciously tantalizing that Foley Square – the center of justice in New York City – is named for a Tammany Hall saloon keeper! As they say, only in New York.

From its colorful founding to its present-day prestige, Foley Square, home to a slew of federal, state and local court facilities, is the set and stage for all manner of real and fictional drama, from the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to the custody trial of Gloria Vanderbilt to a gruesome assassination scene in The Godfather. It was even a triage center on 9/11.

Thomas F. “Big Tom” Foley died in 1925 and never had an opportunity to see what his namesake would become. If there’s an afterworld, and a bookstore in it, he’d do well to check out attorney Robert Pigott’s book, New York Legal Landmarks: A Guide to Legal Edifices, Institutions, Lore, History and Curiosity on the City Streets.

A Tribute to Judge Harold A. Stevens During Black History Month

February 1, 2018October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsBlack History Month, Court of Appeals Judges, Judicial Notice, New York Legal History, Uncategorized, Blog

This blog article by Margery Corbin Eddy, Lisa LeCours, Paul McGrath and Frances Murray is excerpted from a tribute of the same title originally published in Judicial Notice Issue 5, in which the authors provide more detail about the inspiring life of Judge Stevens. In this excerpt, the authors discuss Judge Stevens and his Court of Appeals career. You can read the full article here.

Judge Harold A. Stevens was the first African-American to serve on the New York Court of Appeals. But this milestone, achieved in 1974, was only one of many trail-blazing “firsts” in the extraordinary life of this exceptional lawyer and jurist. Judge Stevens was also the first African-American to graduate from Boston College Law School in 1936; the first elected to the Court of General Sessions in 1950; the first appointed and then elected to the New York State Supreme Court; the first to serve on the Appellate Division (appointed 1958) and the first African-American Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division (appointed 1969). Born and raised in the South during segregation, Judge Stevens settled in New York, a state he served as an advocate, a legislator and a judge. We honor that service and pay tribute to Judge Stevens during Black History Month.

His Tenure on the Court of Appeals

Judge Stevens arrived on the Court of Appeals during a time of significant change for the Court. Court of Appeals judges were elected, although this method of selection had become controversial.

Between November 1972 and November 1974, there were no less than six Court of Appeals Judgeships to be decided by popular vote. In 1972 alone, three new members were elected to the Court (Domenick Gabrielli, Hugh Jones and Sol Wachtler). Judge Stevens joined the Court in the aftermath of a closely-contested election for the position of Chief Judge between then-Associate Judge Charles Breitel and private practitioner Jacob Fuchsberg in November 1973. Judge Breitel won the election but the hard-fought race caused many to call for change from an elective to an appointive system.[1]

The Garfinkel Essay Scholarship: A Teaching Circle

January 17, 2018October 24, 2018Historical Society of the New York CourtsUncategorized, Blog, Education, Garfinkel Essay Scholarship

This article was written by Christine Mooney, our inaugural Historical Society of the New York Courts Teaching Fellow. Prof. Mooney is an attorney and associate professor in the CUNY Community College System, where she has been involved in mentoring students for the Garfinkel Essay Scholarship since 2009. She’s been conducting teacher and student workshops and provide resources to help bring the contest to all CUNY Community College campuses.

For more about the 2018 Garfinkel Essay Scholarship, click here.

Photo: Detail from the mural “Victory of Light over Darkness,” by Ernest Fiene, 1944, depicting a scene from the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, March 25, 1911. This image was used for the 2011 Garfinkel Essay Scholarship flyer – the topic was “The Legal Legacy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire”.

Last spring my colleague, Dr. Edward Volchok and I were awarded the National Education Association (NEA) Excellence in the Academy Art of Teaching Prize, for our article, “A Reflection on Teaching Students About the Value of Public Sector Unions.” The article, a commentary about the current state of unions and their historical context, provides a look at the most recent Supreme Court case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.

Our research involved a historical look at the early labor movement in New York. While developing my research plan, my outline immediately brought me to the words, “Garfinkel Essay Contest”. It was what we call an “AHA” moment. I quickly went to the Garfinkel Resource page and found all of the links to the topic of the 2011 essay contest, “The Legacy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire”. To my surprise, I was conducting the same research my students completed six years earlier. In my mind, the topics were for my students, and their essays, NOT ME! I never stopped to think that the legacy and reach of the contest had larger outcomes. After all, I am the teacher, and they are the students, WRONG! We are all students and learning should be a life-long process!