Mayor appoints new executive director to lead judicial advisory committee

Douglas Keith was named as the new executive director and senior legal officer to the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary on Tuesday.  Photo via Brennan Center for Justice

By Ryan Schwach

Mayor Zohran Mamdani named a new executive director and senior legal officer to the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary on Tuesday.

Douglas Keith was named to lead the committee as the administration attempts to overhaul the judicial selection process in the five boroughs. He will work closely with Queens attorney Ali Najmi, who chairs the committee and is a close ally of the mayor.

Keith previously worked as the deputy director of the judiciary program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, and co-founded the State Court Report, which reports on state constitutional law cases across the country.

He’ll now lead the 18-person committee that sifts through judicial candidates for the city’s courts and recommends its picks to the mayor.

“New York City’s criminal, family, and civil courts make decisions with tremendous impact on people’s lives,” Keith said in a statement. “I am looking forward to facilitating a process that ensures the judiciary has the independence it needs to do its vital work, that ensures the city’s courts reflect the diverse public that they serve, and that is worthy of the public trust.”

Keith succeeded Ayanna Sorett, who resigned in August.

His appointment was lauded by the Legal Aid Society and Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas.

“I am confident that the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, under its new leadership, will advance a selection system grounded in fairness, merit, and public trust,” Zayas said.

Najmi said he was looking forward to working with Keith “to ensure a fair, independent, and merit-based selection process for every judicial appointment.”

The committee has hit some road bumps since Mamdani appointed Najmi in the early days of his tenure with the promise to “revitalize” the little-known committee that is responsible for recommending judges for Family Court and Civil Court, as well as interim appointees to the city’s Criminal Courts.

After remaining dormant for the first six months of 2026, Mamdani appointed 18 members to the committee in August – including several legal professionals with Queens connections. The appointments were criticized by Jewish legal groups, who said the committee should have included a Jewish member.

Keith, the new executive director, is Jewish.

The Mamdani administration has rolled out several reforms to the judicial appointment process since the mayor appointed Ali Najmi to serve as the chair of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary in January.  Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

In recent months, the mayor has pushed a set of reforms to the judicial appointment process and the advisory committee.

The reforms included establishing the committee's first code of conduct and reformalizing the New York City Bar Association's role in vetting potential judges.

“Judges make decisions every day that shape New Yorkers’ lives, and the process for selecting them must be worthy of the public’s trust,” Mamdani said in a statement on Tuesday. “With Douglas Keith’s leadership, our first-ever Code of Conduct, and a restored partnership with the City Bar, we are strengthening the safeguards that ensure judges are evaluated on their merits, free from favoritism and with the independence our judiciary demands and New Yorkers deserve.”

When Mamdani announced the 18 appointments in July, City Hall said that the members would soon begin to meet and issue their first recommendations to the mayor by October.

That’s no longer the case.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson from City Hall told the Eagle that the first judicial appointment recommendations would be submitted to the mayor by November.