NY Bar Association honors former public defender
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Former Ulster County Public Defender Andrew Kossover has been named the recipient of the New York State Bar Association’s 2020 Denison Ray Criminal Defender Award.
“With all the wonderful and dedicated public defenders throughout New York, it is an especially great honor to be recognized as the best among them by your peers and colleagues who understand the commitment and experience necessary to provide quality representation in the spirit of Dension Ray, for who the award is named,” Kossover said of the honor.
According to his obituary in The New York Times, Ray was a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society who practiced civil rights law. He served as executive director and chief counsel of the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York in Albany and with legal-assistance groups in St. Louis, Portland, Maine, Durham, N.C., and Raleigh, N.C.
In the 1960s, Ray worked with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Law in Mississippi representing Black plaintiffs in local courts.
According to the Bar Association, the Denison Ray
Criminal Defender Award is given to a criminal defender whose accomplishments best represents the ideals exemplified by Ray’s career.
Kossover is a criminal defense attorney and partner in the Kossover Law firm. He served as Ulster County public defender from 2006 until he was fired earlier this by Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan.
Kossover is the past president of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and is a longtime member of that organization’s Legislative Committee. He currently serves on the advisory group for the New York State Justice Task Force on Wrongful Convictions and led successful campaigns for Rockefeller
Drug Law Reform and Article 245 Discovery Law Reform.
In February, Ryan issued a press release saying Kossover had resigned as public defender following the discovery that Kossover had not secured millions of dollars in grant money from the state. Kossover, though, said he did not resign. Ryan later conceded he had not received a formal letter of resignation but said “won’t be serving as public defender.”
Earlier this month, Ryan appointed Lauren Sheeley, a Red Hook resident who currently works in the Ulster County Attorney’s Office, to be the next public defender. The county Legislature is scheduled to vote on that appointment in July.