Michael A. Cardozo, NYC Corporation Counsel, to Speak on Judicial Selection Crisis on Friday, March 24
Contact: Edith Sachs, Office of Public Affairs, 212.431.2187, esachs@nyls.edu
NEW YORK, March 22, 2006—Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, will be the featured speaker at the Center for New York City Law’s CityLaw Breakfast on Friday, March 24, 2006 at 8:15 a.m. Cardozo, who leads the New York City Law Department, will discuss the problems in New York State Supreme Court judicial selection as revealed in recent scandals and the federal court decision declaring the judicial convention system unconstitutional. He will give his and Mayor Bloomberg’s recommendations on how the problems should be solved.
Other topics Cardozo will discuss include the city’s recent experience with consent decrees and steps it is taking to avoid entering into them; the city’s tort caseload; and the Law Department’s efforts to decrease both the number of pending cases and the total amount of tort payouts.
Cardozo was appointed Corporation Counsel by Mayor Bloomberg in 2001. Previously, he was a partner at the law firm Proskauer Rose LLP. From 1996–1998, he was president of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; in 1999, he was elected chairman of the Committee and Fund for Modern Courts. He also served, by appointment of Governor Mario Cuomo and former New York State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Sol Wachtler, on task forces and committees charged with overseeing judicial administration.
Cardozo’s talk will be followed by an open-mike Q&A session.
The event is presented by the Center for New York City Law in the Stiefel Reading Room at New York Law School, 47 Worth Street (between Church Street and West Broadway). Media coverage is invited.
This open forum is part of the Center for New York City Law’s Breakfast Series. The event is open to the public at no charge, but reservations are appreciated. For registration and information, contact the Center for New York City Law at 212.431.2115, fax: 212.941.4735, e-mail: nycitylaw@nyls.edu, or visit www.citylaw.org.
About the Center for New York City Law:
Founded in 1993, the Center for New York City Law works to make the city’s government and decisions more fair, comprehensible, and open to the public. The academic and public mission of the Center is to provide information about, and analysis of, the laws and legal processes that govern New York City. To that end, the Center publishes CityLaw, a bimonthly journal reporting New York City legal and administrative decisions; CityLand, a monthly land-use publication; and CityRegs, a biweekly newsletter on new and proposed city regulations. The Center’s Web site, www.citylaw.org, provides an open window on city government, making over 26,000 city administrative decisions from 15 agencies available free of charge in a searchable, comprehensive online database. The Center’s director, Professor Ross Sandler, is former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation.
