Gov nominates Wilson for chief judge

Court of Appeals Judge Rowan Wilson (right) was nominated by Governor Kathy Hochul to serve as the court’s chief judge on Monday, April 10, 2023. Photo by Rob Abruzzese

By Jacob Kaye

Governor Kathy Hochul nominated Court of Appeals Judge Rowan Wilson to serve as the high court’s chief judge on Monday.

The governor, who, earlier this year, went through a bitter battle with Senate Democrats over her nomination of Hector LaSalle for the seat, also announced her intention to nominate Caitlin Halligan to serve as a judge on the court in the seat Wilson would vacate after being confirmed by the Senate.

Hochul also said that Wilson intends to tap Appellate Division, Second Department Justice Joseph Zayas, who previously served as the administrative judge in Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term, to serve as chief administrative judge, the second-highest ranking judge in the state’s court system.

Should he be confirmed, Wilson will become the first Black chief judge in the court’s history.

"New Yorkers deserve a strong, effective, and thoughtful leader, and I am proud to nominate Judge Wilson as Chief Judge," Hochul said in a statement. "Judge Wilson's sterling record of upholding justice and fairness makes him well-suited to lead the court at this critical time.”

“Our courts have been clogged since the pandemic, and I will work hard with the new leadership in the Judiciary to ensure that justice is no longer denied due to insufficiencies in our system,” she added.

In a statement, Wilson called the potential to serve as chief judge “the honor of my career.”

“Protecting the rights of New Yorkers is my top priority, and I look forward to working with Governor Hochul and our partners throughout the judiciary system to manage our courts and deliver justice,” he said.

In a reversal from Hochul’s last chief judge nominee, Senate Democrats and progressive organizations quickly praised the governor’s selection of Wilson on Monday.

“I commend Governor Hochul for selecting Judge Rowan Wilson and Caitlin Halligan for appointments to the Court of Appeals,” Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris said in a statement.

Gianaris was one of over a dozen senators to announce their intention to vote against LaSalle shortly after Hochul nominated him in December. In addition to citing a number of LaSalle’s previous decisions that they said they took issue with, the senators said that they were concerned that LaSalle would break an ideological tie inside the court, and solidify a conservative majority that has ruled together over the past several years.

Wilson, who was first appointed to the court in 2017 by former Governor Andrew Cuomo, has consistently served as a liberal voice on the court, often dissenting from its conservative bloc in recent years.

“I am particularly excited about the prospect of Judge Wilson leading our state’s highest court as Chief Judge,” Gianaris said on Monday. “He is exactly the type of person who can restore the integrity and reputation of the Court of Appeals after the damaging tenure of the previous administration.”

Wilson, who received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and his law degree from Harvard Law School, spent a large portion of his career working for white-shoe law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where he would go on to become the first Black partner in the firm’s history.

Wilson also served for over two decades as the chairman of the Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem.

The Center for Community Alternatives, which helped form the group the Court New York Deserves during LaSalle’s nomination process and which led the opposition against LaSalle, also celebrated Wilson’s nomination.

The progressive group and its director of judicial accountability, Peter Martin, cited previous dissents and decisions which they say “articulated, defended, and expanded the rights of workers, wrongfully convicted people, workplace injury victims and victims of gun violence.”

“Since last summer, we have called for a nominee who has demonstrated a commitment to safeguarding the rights of New Yorkers and protecting the most vulnerable,” Martin said in a statement. “As an Associate Judge on the Court of Appeals for the last six years, Judge Wilson has distinguished himself as a tireless champion of marginalized people.”

“By building a powerful coalition, laying out our priorities early, and holding the line against a nominee who fell short of what our state deserves, we have set the bar for Court of Appeals nominations — and we have succeeded in getting a Chief Judge nominee who clears that bar,” he added. “We urge the Senate to confirm Judge Wilson’s nomination after the thorough review of his record that should be standard for all Court of Appeals nominees.”

With the support from progressive leadership, Wilson’s confirmation process is expected to go far smoother than LaSalle’s, which resulted in the Senate’s first-ever chief judge nomination rejection.

Also showing that the governor and Senate Democrats have come together on the chief judge nomination process is Halligan’s nomination.

Halligan was one of seven candidates to be recommended by the Commission on Judicial Nomination for the chief judge position, alongside Wilson.

On Monday, around the time she made her nominations, Hochul signed a bill into law that would allow her to select a candidate from the same chief judge list to fill the vacancy her chief judge nomination created.

The Senate and Assembly toward the end of March introduced the bill that would allow the governor to make such a nomination, rather than select a candidate from a new list formed by the commission to fill the vacancy created by her nomination of Wilson.

The “program bill,” or a bill that has been negotiated and agreed upon by the legislature and the governor before it’s introduced, passed both the Senate and Assembly less than a week after it was introduced.

Bar associations and judges associations, particularly those that represent ethnic and racial groups of legal professionals that have struggled for representation on the bench, have opposed the bill, arguing that it will ultimately limit opportunities to make it to the state’s top court and will further hamper diversity efforts.

Some have also argued that it’s unconstitutional.

“You can't change a constitutional process without a constitutional amendment,” Ali Najmi, an election attorney, recently told the Eagle.

Prior to the bill’s passage into law, Najmi said the governor and legislature could be opening themselves up to a lawsuit.

“I think that presumably any judge in the state of New York or any lawyer that would want to potentially put their name in to be a potential candidate for the Court of Appeals would have standing,” he said.

Hochul has defended the bill – last month, she said she would “only put it forward if we believed it was constitutional.”

Speaking to reporters shortly after the bill was introduced, Hochul declined to commit to using the process the bill would grant her to use.

“I just want to see if we could explore our options if we make a decision that would allow for that,” she added.

In the end, Hochul went with the option the bill afforded her, selecting Halligan to serve in what will likely become Wilson’s old seat.

Halligan was seen as a favorite of Hochul’s shortly after the commission released their list of recommendations. Hochul reportedly sought to retain Halligan as an attorney in January, when Senate Democrats first began threatening to reject LaSalle.

Halligan is currently a partner at Selendy Gay Elsberg PLLC.

After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center and after working in the attorney general’s office, she served as New York solicitor general from 2001 until 2007.

"Now more than ever, our courts must be a place of integrity, fairness and justice for all, and I am committed to upholding those values if confirmed to the Court,” Halligan said in a statement on Monday. “I am grateful to Governor Hochul for placing her trust in me during this critical time for our judiciary."

Should Wilson be confirmed, the court system’s massive $3 billion budget will be overseen by a judge who first got experience managing a court in Queens.

Zayas served as the Queens Supreme, Criminal Term administrative judge from 2013 through 2021, when he was appointed by Cuomo to serve as a judge in the Appellate Division, Second Department, working under LaSalle.

Zayas is an active member of the Latino Lawyers Association of Queens County and of the Queens County Bar Association.