These Are the Likely Nominees For Queens Supreme Court, Sources Say
/Ahead of Thursday’s Queens County Democratic party judicial convention — where party delegates will vote on the party’s nominees for Queens Supreme Court, Civil Term — three sources confirmed the four judges who will likely be nominated.
The likely nominees are Civil Court Judge Maureen Healy, Civil Court Judge Larry Love, Civil Court Judge Robert Caloras and Civil Court Judge Ushir Pandit-Durant, the sources said.
If the judges are officially nominated at the convention Thursday, they will appear on the Democratic line in the November general election. Queens votes overwhelmingly Democrat, which means the Democratic nominees would be all but certain to win 14-year terms in the general election.
Because New York has a mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court justices, each justice’s terms end in the calendar year of their 70th birthday.
All four judges are active on the bench.
Healy was first elected Civil Court judge in 2006 and was re-elected in 2015. She serves as an acting Supreme Court justice.
Caloras and Love were both elected in 2012. Love serves as an acting Supreme Court justice.
Pandit-Durant was elected to the bench in 2015.
Before becoming a judge, Healy served as a principal law clerk in Queens County Supreme Court from 1992 to 2005, according to her profile on the Unified Court System website.
Caloras previously served as a law Secretary for Supreme Court, Civil Term Justice Orin Kitzes, law secretary for Supreme Court, Criminal Term Justice Robinson and an assistant district attorney for Queens County, according to his profile on the Unified Court System website.
Love served as legal counsel to Assembly Member Audrey I. Pheffer from 1993 to 2011. He was a legislative assistant to Pheffer from 1987 to 1993 and worked in solo practice from 1994 to 2011, according to his profile on the Unified Court System website.
Pandit-Durant served as an assistant district attorney in the Queens DA’s office from 1987 to 2015. She also serves as president of the South Asian and Indo-Caribbean Bar Association of Queens.
Pandit-Durant is expected to serve in the Criminal Term, a source said.
The sources each said officials from the county Democratic party have been contacting people in the legal community to inform them of the nominees ahead of the judicial convention.
Judge Ushir Pandit-Durant // Eagle file photo
