A conversation with Surrogate judge candidate Wendy Li
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Judge Wendy Li, who is running in the Democratic primary race for Surrogate’s Court judge. Photo via campaign
By Jacob Kaye
Wendy Li is one of two candidates vying for the Democratic nomination in the race for the borough’s Surrogate’s Court bench.
Li, who currently serves as a judge in Manhattan Civil Court, has had a legal career that has spanned over three decades, and she’s now hoping to be elected to one of Queens’ most coveted judicial spots.
The borough’s Surrogate’s Court primarily deals with guardianships, estates and wills, which means that large amounts of money are often up for question in the court.
For over a decade, the court had been overseen by Judge Peter Kelly. With Kelly’s 14-year term expiring at the end of the year, the judge last year ran for and won a spot on the borough’s Supreme Court bench – however, he was put back into his longtime court, where he currently serves as the acting Surrogate’s Court judge.
Li is the insurgent candidate in the race for the judgeship. Her challenger, Queens Supreme Court Justice Cassandra Johnson, is running with the backing of the Queens County Democratic Party, whose chosen candidates have sat on the Surrogate’s Court bench for decades.
It’s not the first time Li has run against what she called an “establishment” candidate – she beat out Robert Rosental, who had the backing of a number of Democratic elected officials, during her first judicial run in Manhattan in 2018.
But Li has come into the Surrogate’s Court race with something few insurgent candidates have – cash. Throughout the race, Li has brought in a little over $400,000, according to the state’s Board of Elections. Johnson has brought in around half as much, with $217,000 in contributions.
Li recently spoke with the Eagle by phone about her position in the race, her hopes for the Surrogate’s Court, her eyebrow-raising fundraising and more.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell us a little bit about your background.
I’m a judge of the Civil Court of New York and I’m actually the longest sitting judge out of the three candidates running for this Surrogate’s Court race. I have been delivering impartial justice for the past six years. I also have more than 35 years of legal experience, having worked as a law firm partner before becoming a judge.
As a judge, I’ve handled criminal and civil matters in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, where I currently serve. We have very busy calendars, sometimes 60 matters per day. I sit on the trial parts, the motion parts and handle all the breach of contracts and real estate matters. I also handle many Supreme Court matters that are transferred to the Civil Court and conduct lots of jury trials and bench trials. In terms of my legal education, I have a Master of Science in Law and Finance degree from Oxford University and also before that I went to Southern Methodist University and obtained my Master of Law degree and also went to Harvard University and obtained their graduate certificate in international relations.
I also speak very often to civic and professional associations. I have been doing lots of education seminars in our community, and for our students, as well. I’ve spoken to some students about how to become a judge because if they can see an immigrant like me who came to the United States at age of 28 who can become a judge, who can become a law partner at an international law firm, so can they.
I think that the inspiration for me to run for Queens’ next Surrogate’s Court judge is not about me being elected, it’s about our community and to ensure that our judicial system, especially our Queens Surrogate’s Court, is transparent and independent from political influence.
Just to stay on your motivations in this race, what first got you interested in law?
When I grew up, I wanted to be a teacher. And then I was admitted to a very prestigious law school overseas, so, that's when I decided to continue my career and my study in law. This is one of the best decisions I have ever made. Serving the community by being a lawyer, we can actually have a high impact on the community to provide legal services. In fact, I did lots of public services when I was in private practice, through bar associations and community organizations. It's very rewarding because sometimes some community members cannot afford legal services or lawyers. That's why I wanted to become a lawyer, to help to communicate and to serve and communities. Because as an immigrant myself, I actually received lots of help from various mentors and people around me. New York City has especially given me a lot. I want to return to the community.
Why run for Surrogate’s Court in particular, and not for Supreme Court or any other judicial role?
I think it's important to have judicial independence and to have a transparent court. That's my inspiration for me to run for this position. Because I believe that I can make a difference in addition, of course, to making history, but most important is to make a difference. I want to make sure that we can speed up the probate process. During my campaign trail, I have met lots of voters and many voters say that the court was not responsive and took a long time for them to get any of their matters handled. So, I really want to speed up the process in the court and reduce the backlog. And I want to make sure that we have more clerks to help our litigants. And also, I want to have a night court at least one day, every week, so that some of the pro se litigants can come to the court and get help without being afraid of losing jobs or losing wages. I think that's important to have the court to be accessed by the litigants. We also need to provide more language assistance, more interpreters for the litigants, so that they can be served.
In terms of the administrators and attorneys, I want to appoint only qualified and honest people as guardians and all the appointments will be based on qualification and they won’t be based on political connections. That's my main inspiration, to make sure that the Surrogate's Court will administer fair justice for all and be more inclusive.
Are you suggesting there currently is political influence on the court?
As a judge, I cannot really opine on that. But my promise is to be independent from any political favors and we will have a transparent Surrogate’s Court, which is for the people, by the people and not for a certain political establishment.
You are running against a candidate who, as you say, is backed by the political establishment. When you first ran for Civil Court in 2018, you also challenged a candidate in a similar position. Can you talk about running against such candidates?
In 2018, I ran a very competitive Democratic judicial race and my opponent was backed by the establishment and actually received the endorsement from almost every single politician in town. But we won because I believe people deserve a choice. When you go to the polling site most of the time, they ask you to vote for two judges, and there's only two names there. And when they ask you to vote for one judge, there's only one judge on the ballot. People want a choice.
When I was on the campaign trail in 2018, and the same thing is true this year, most of the voters told me, ‘Oh, you're the first judge who ever came to the community to speak to us.’ I think it’s true because there's no need for any of the judicial candidates to go to the community and then actually do the campaign and then to go through the election process, which was designed for people to elect their judges for their community. Because of endorsements, most of the voters were just looking at the political figures and then voted according to the endorsement. But the purpose of the grassroots and the spirit of the grassroots is to educate our voters and then actually return the power to our voters.
Given what you just described as your ‘grassroots’ campaign, you’ve been able to raise a significant amount of money. Can you talk a little about your fundraising efforts?
As a judge, I can not raise funds by myself because we have a very strict judicial ethics standard. I do have a committee of about 12 people so they raise funds for this campaign. And I'm very grateful for our community because they came together and then they want to win this race for a good cause.
Looking at some of your donations, a significant number of your top donors not only come from outside Queens, but from outside New York City entirely. Why do you think you’re getting support from people outside of the borough for a race to elect a judge that will only serve people in Queens.
This is a local race right here in Queens, however, I think that the importance is greater. Machine politics exists everywhere. It’s in New Jersey, it’s in Queens, it’s in New York City and in New York State. I think the voters support this race for good cause because it's a symbol for the power of the voters. They believe that in the Democratic process, we shouldn't have this kind of machine politics.
You were first elected as a judge in Manhattan. I know you’ve been shuffled around in the courts and have served in Queens, but you’re now running for a Queens judicial position. Do you live in the borough?
Yes, I live in Queens. I used to live in Manhattan but when I worked in Queens, I moved to Queens. I have my home in Manhattan and I also have my home in Queens.
You mentioned earlier bringing more interpreters into the courts, many of which across New York have struggled to provide interpreters to litigants. Is this an issue that feel is a particular problem in Queens Surrogate’s Court?
Especially for the guardianship matters for the people that don’t speak English, their ability to become the guardian of their own children is hindered. It might be difficult to communicate if English is not their first language because it’s very difficult to navigate the processes.
Lastly, if elected, you’d become the first Assian American to be elected to the Surrogate’s Court bench not only in Queens, but the first in all of New York City. Can you talk a little about what that might mean to you?
I think that numbers talk. The Asian American Pacific Islander community represents around 13 percent of New York State’s population, however, the AAPI community represents less than 5 percent of the New York State judiciary. So, when I am elected, of course, I will be the first female, the first minority Surrogate’s Court judge and I will also be the first female AAPI Surrogate’s Court judge in Queens and New York City. This is a history-making race for the AAPI community.
