Appeals judge has resigned
Feinman cites health reason; governor to pick successor
Court of Appeals Associate Judge Paul Feinman, known as “a champion of the LGBTQ community,” announced his immediate departure from the state’s highest court due to a health concern, the court said Tuesday.
The Court of Appeals announced on its website that Feinman informed Chief Judge Janet Difiore of his departure.
Feinman, 61, an appointee of Gov. Andrew Cuomo who previously served at the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court’s First Department in Manhattan, joined the Court of Appeals in 2017 as the first openly gay member of the court. He took the seat of Associate Judge Sheila Abdus-salaam.
“Judge Feinman is an exceptional judge and a magnificent human being who has made an extraordinary contribution to this institution during his tenure,” Difiore said in a statement. “He will be greatly missed.”
The state’s Commission on Judicial Nomination, a judicial screening committee, will be expected to seek applications from candidates to fill the vacancy left by Feinman’s departure, pick a slate of finalists and present it to the governor, who then picks the nominee. The state Senate would need to confirm the choice.
Feinman’s departure is a “tremendous loss,” New York State Bar Association President Scott Karson said in a statement. He said Feinman has been “an exceptional judge, magnificent human being, and a champion of the LGBTQ community.”
“He has been a wonderful colleague to so many of us at the New York State Bar Association, and we are saddened that his tenure on the state’s highest court will be so brief,” Karson said. “I join with his family, friends and admirers throughout the state in wishing him a speedy recovery.”
Feinman, who grew up one of five siblings in Merrick, Nassau County, graduated from Columbia University and in 1981 and earned his law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1985, according to his biography on the Court of Appeals website. It said Feinman also studied in France at the Université de Paris VII (Jussieu),the Université de Paris II (Assas) and the Université de Lyon III.
Feinman, a Democrat who has worked for the Legal Aid Society in Nassau County and Manhattan, later worked as a law clerk for state Supreme Court Justice Angela Mazzarelli in civil criminal courts and at the Appellate Division’s First Department. Feinman was elected to Civil Court in Manhattan in 1996 and began serving as an acting Supreme Court Justice in 2004. Three years later, he was elected to Supreme Court.
Cuomo named him to sit on the Appellate Division’s First Department in 2012 and to the Court of Appeals five years later.