The Society and the New York State Unified Court System are dedicated to increasing the public’s understanding of how the courts work. Throughout the State, Society members and court staff engage in activities that promote public awareness about the judicial system.
For information on how to arrange a guided tour of local court facilities, please contact the New York State Unified Court System’s Office of Public Affairs.
To arrange for a Society member, including a lawyer or judge, to visit your classroom, please contact us here.
Here is what students had to say when Hon. Toko Serita, NYS Acting Supreme Court Justice and Presiding Judge of the Queens Human Trafficking Intervention Court, visited their classroom in 2023!
When Professor Mandal invited Judge Toko Serita to class it blew my mind. It was really cool to learn about human trafficking and trafficking court. Both of them live and work in my community, and so it meant a lot to talk about social issues that directly impact my people. I was impressed.
***
I enjoyed the guest speakers coming in as it shed more light on the topics that we covered. I thought that their presence was important to my learning as it showed me that these topics do indeed exist and are widespread and what they did specifically to combat the issues they faced.
***
Additionally [listening to] Judge Toko Serita specifically, it was enlightening to hear how a POC woman harnessed her passion for human rights issues to make a difference in the justice system.
***
Looking at the history of the New York Courts with Hon. Toko Serita and Eric Fieldman, brought to light many realistic ways of tackling issues that the courts have, and many idealistic misconceptions about the courts that people tend to have, like the court being able to play ‘God’ and being an absolute savior, when that is not always the case. These guest speakers were very insightful, and I’m interested in learning more about these subjects in the future.