Retired state Court of Appeals judge Robert Smith delivered the annual Hugh Jones Memorial Lecture at Albany Law School on Monday.

Smith, now a partner at Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman in Manhattan, spoke of the elements that factored into his decision making during his 10 years on the court. Among his most challenging cases were those about the death penalty, the question of custody of a child in a same-sex union and the court's many attempts to try to define what constituted depraved indifference murder and how it differed from intentional murder.

Smith later joined Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, below left, and Albany Law School President and Dean Alicia Ouellette in greeting well-wishers at the event, which is sponsored by the Fund for Modern Courts and Albany Law School.