Brian Lee

January 14, 2025 | New York Law Journal

In her State of State address, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says defense attorneys have been incentivized to delay raising challenges to a prosecutor's compliance, so that they can have cases thrown out. The state's defense bar rejects these claims and urges the Legislature to leave the reforms undisturbed.

By Brian Lee

7 minute read

January 13, 2025 | New York Law Journal

New York State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Marcelle ruled state cannabis regulators’ and the New York City Sheriff's Office’s warrantless raids on hemp license-holders is violative of the Fourth Amendment.

By Brian Lee

3 minute read

January 13, 2025 | New York Law Journal

Albany County DA Lee Kindlon has hired Joseph Meany as chief assistant district attorney, and Jennifer Aguila as chief of staff.

By Brian Lee

2 minute read

January 13, 2025 | New York Law Journal

A key lawmaker said the New York Senate majority is not likely to trim discovery reform measures. The changes enacted in 2020 were aimed to ensure access to defendants of the evidence against them.

By Brian Lee

5 minute read

January 10, 2025 | New York Law Journal

A part-time New York jurist and retired staffer for the steelworkers’ union agreed to be admonished for making more than $6,000 in prohibited political contributions, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct said.

By Brian Lee

2 minute read

January 09, 2025 | New York Law Journal

Former state Supreme Court Justice Erin T. Gall—who the state's judicial conduct watchdog concluded that she had threatened violence against Black teens at a party—is not eligible to ever serve in a judicial office again.

By Brian Lee

3 minute read

January 09, 2025 | New York Law Journal

The New York Court of Appeals is mulling a Child Victims Act claim that tasks it with determining whether county social service departments owe a special duty to children whom they place in foster care.

By Brian Lee

5 minute read

January 08, 2025 | New York Law Journal

An ex-client took a dispute with their former lawyer to the very court where that attorney now presided as a judge. The state's judicial conduct watchdog said Alden Town and Village Courts Justice Michael W. Cole, rather than seeking to have the case moved elsewhere, acted to delay the small-claims matter in hopes it would be dropped.

By Brian Lee

2 minute read

January 07, 2025 | New York Law Journal

Judges on the New York Court of Appeals pressed lawyers over whether the ethics watchdog is a constitutionally valid body that should be allowed to investigate former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's $5.1 million book deal for a memoir about his handling of the pandemic.

By Brian Lee

4 minute read

January 07, 2025 | New York Law Journal

The petition, filed in Brooklyn federal court, seeks to protect Walden’s "core political speech” under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

By Brian Lee

4 minute read