Queens’ top criminal court judge promoted to Appellate Division
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Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term Administrative Judge Donna-Marie Golia was appointed by Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday to serve as a judge in the Appellate Division, Second Department. Eagle file photo by Ryan Schwach
By Jacob Kaye
Queens’ top criminal court judge was promoted by the governor on Wednesday to serve on the appellate bench.
Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term Administrative Judge Donna-Marie Golia was tapped by Governor Kathy Hochul to serve as a judge in the Appellate Division, Second Department. Golia was one of three judges appointed to the appeals court by the governor this week.
Golia, who has served as the top judge in the borough’s superior criminal court since 2022, will be joined on the appellate bench by Queens Supreme Court Judge Phillip Hom, who also received Hochul’s appointment on Wednesday. Also appointed was Associate Justice of the Appellate Term for the Ninth and Tenth, Second Department James McCormack.
The appointments take effect Friday, Aug. 16.
“Our courts must be led by qualified, fair and impartial jurists,” Hochul said. “With decades of legal experience and deep knowledge of the law, these three judges will be tremendous additions to the appellate division.”
In a statement, Golia said that she was “truly honored to have been appointed to the Appellate Division, Second Department by Governor Hochul,” adding that she was “very much look[ing] forward to serving the court under the leadership of Presiding Justice LaSalle.”
The judge’s appointment received praise from legal leaders in the World’s Borough, some of which have been calling on Hochul to add more Queens judges to the bench that hears appeals cases from Richmond, Kings, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, Putnam and Queens Counties.
“On behalf of the Queens County Bar Association, we are overjoyed and just thrilled for [Golia’s] appointment,” Zenith Taylor, the president of the Queens County Bar Association, told the Eagle on Wednesday.
“She has been a wonderful judge in Civil, Supreme Criminal and it’s a well-deserved elevation,” Taylor added.
The promotions for both of the Queens judges were also applauded by their colleagues on the bench.
“I am thrilled that the governor decided to appoint Justice Hom and Justice Golia to the Appellate Division, Second Department,” said Queens Supreme Court Justice Carmen Velasquez, who serves as the president of the Supreme Court Justice Association of the City of New York.
“Today is a good day for the judiciary,” she added.
Golia’s appointment creates a vacancy atop the borough’s Criminal Court, marking the third time the court has seen turnover at its top position since 2021.
That year, then-Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas was appointed to serve on the Appellate Division, Second Department bench – Zayas now serves as the court system’s chief administrative judge, the second-highest ranking judicial position in New York. After leaving Queens, Zayas was replaced by then-Justice George Grasso, who retired from the position in 2022 to launch an eventually failed bid for Queens district attorney.
Following both departures, Queens Supreme Court Justiceichelle Johnson filled in as interim administrative justice. However, that won’t be the case this time around.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Phillip Hom was nominated to the Appellate Division, Second Department on Wednesday by Governor Kathy Hochul. Eagle file photo by Ryan Schwach
Beginning on Friday, the court will be led by “a rotation of senior judges” who will “manage administrative tasks until a new administrative judge is named,” according to a spokesperson from the Office of Court Administration.
Golia will leave Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term, almost two years to the day since her appointment to the administrative judge role.
Golia began her judicial career after being elected to the Queens County Civil Court in 2013. Her first assignment was to serve on the Criminal Court bench in the World’s Borough.
Several years later, she was named an acting Supreme Court justice and became the supervising judge in Queens Civil Court in 2018.
Golia was elected to the State Supreme Court, Queens County in 2020, and appointed as an associate justice of the Appellate Term, Second Department for the Second, Eleventh and Thirteenth Judicial Districts in January 2021.
The CUNY Law School graduate began her career in the Queens courts as a court attorney referee and principal law clerk in Surrogate’s Court. She also spent more than a decade with the Queens district attorney’s office.
Golia will now head to the Appellate Division alongside her Queens colleague, Hom, who has served in Queens’ Supreme Court since 2019.
Hom’s first election to the bench came in 2017, when he was elected to Queens Civil Court.
Prior to his career as a jurist, Hom served as special counsel to Windels Marx Lane & Mitterdorf, LLP.
He has also held a variety of positions in the public sector, working primarily for now-State Senator John Liu, including as Liu’s deputy general counsel when the elected official served as the city’s comptroller, and as his chief of staff when Liu was in the City Council.
Hom also worked as the assistant director of the New York City Council’s Divisions of Human Services and as an attorney in the New York City Human Resources Administration’s Office of Revenue and Investigation, Litigation Division.
While in law school at the University of Minnesota, he began his legal career as a law clerk in the Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office in Minneapolis. After graduating, he worked as a litigation associate in Owen & Davis – now Norton Rose Fulbright – in New York.
Last year, he made history when he became the first Asian American to sit on the bench of the Appellate Term, Second Department’s 2nd, 11th and 13th Districts.
Joining both Hom and Golia on the bench will be McCormack, who currently serves as an associate justice of the Appellate Term for the Ninth and Tenth, Second Department.
McCormack first became a judge when he was elected in 2006 to serve on the Nassau County Court. He served as acting justice of the Supreme Court’s 10th Judicial District from 2007 until 2015, the same year he joined the Appellate Term.
McCormack, who graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1985, got his start in the legal world by working as an assistant district attorney in the Nassau County DA’s office.
Neither McCormack, Hom or Golia’s appointments will require State Senate confirmation.
