State Appellate Court Judge to Retire After More Than 3 Decades
Associate Justice Peter Tom was the first Asian American appointed to the First Department when he took on the role in January 1994,
November 08, 2019 at 06:36 PM
2 minute read
The original version of this story was published on New York Law Journal
Justice Peter Tom
Associate Justice Peter Tom of New York's First Judicial Department announced his retirement this week, more than 30 years after he took the bench as a judge in New York Housing Court.
Tom made his announcement at the end of the court session Monday, saying that he's looking forward to the next chapter of his life, state court spokesman Lucian Chalfen confirmed.
The justice was the first Asian American appointed to the First Department when he took on the role in January 1994, after serving in housing court, civil court and New York County Supreme Court, according to his official biography.
In civil court in 1986, he decided Kellner v. Cappellini, which allowed a century-old statute aimed at bawdy houses to be used to evict drug dealers around Manhattan, helping the city manage the crack cocaine epidemic.
He served as the First Department's acting presiding justice multiple times and wrote more than 400 opinions and decisions in his 25-year appellate career, according to his biography.
In 2017, he became one of the first two Asian Americans to hear a case in the Court of Appeals, where he was designated to fill in for a recused justice.
Tom is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School.
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