Administrative Judge Silver announces retirement

Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for New York City George Silver will retire from the bench on Sept. 30, 2021.  Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese

By Jacob Kaye

New York City’s top judge will step down from the bench at the end of the month.

Deputy Chief Administrative Judge of New York City George J. Silver told the Office of Court Administration that he will retire from the bench effective Sept. 30, according to the OCA.

Silver, who was appointed to his current position in July 2017, will go on to “pursue opportunities in the private sector,” an OCA spokesperson said.

The judge told the Brooklyn Eagle in 2019, that he only had two career options growing up in the Bronx.

“I am from the classic Jewish family where I was expected to become a doctor or a lawyer,” Silver said. “I didn’t want to become a doctor and my father didn’t have his own business that I could join, so I became a lawyer.”

In his capacity as the deputy chief administrative judge for New York City, Silver said that his focus was spread across the five boroughs, and not just on Manhattan.

“I’m the DCAJ for all of New York City, not just New York County, so I wanted to see the DCAJ have more of a presence in Brooklyn and the outer boroughs,” he said. “It’s a ground game. It’s very important because it motivates the judges to see me do everything that a judge is supposed to be.”

Administrative Judge for Criminal Matters, Supreme Court, Queens County George Grasso worked with Silver for several years when the pair served in the Bronx.

Grasso said that Silver has been a “terrific leader,” and that he had especially stepped up during the pandemic, when court operations became a difficult situation to navigate.

“He certainly has shown his leadership skills in the context of the unprecedented challenges to the court system brought by this global pandemic that we've been dealing with since March of 2020,” Grasso said.

In his position, Silver has been in charge of the day-to-day court operations for all trial courts in New York City for the past four years.

“It hasn't been easy for anybody, but especially at the level of leadership that he's been at,” Grasso added. “He’s empathetic, he's focused and he's shown remarkable energy and innovation during this process.”

A graduate of Hofstra University School of Law, Silver was first elected to the bench in 2004, when he won his race for Civil Court of the City of New York.

He was initially assigned to Kings County Civil Court before being reassigned to Bronx County Family court in 2009.

In 2010, Silver was appointed to the Supreme Court and assigned to New York City Supreme Court. Two years later, he was elected to the Supreme Court and in 2015 began presiding over the recently-created J-Med, a Mediation Part.

The OCA has not determined who will take on Silver’s caseload when he retires at the end of the month.

Silver did not respond to requests for comment.