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Senior Judge Leonard Wexler, a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of New York who was proud of how many cases he was still hearing at age 93, died over
the weekend.

“When I'm not trying cases, I'm bored,” Wexler told the New York Law Journal in a recent interview. “During the month of June, I try five or six jury cases. Some judges don't do that in a year.”

Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who served in the Eastern District from 1999 to 2001 and then again from 2010 to 2015, said Wexler loved the law.

“Judge Leonard Wexler's life was a testament to public service,” Lynch said in a statement. “The ideals for which he fought in World War II guided him throughout his career. His love of the law ran bone deep, as did his commitment to justice and to the people of the Eastern District.”

Chief EDNY Judge Dora Irizarry recalled Wexler's eternally positive attitude and the encouragement he expressed to her and other female colleagues.

“He was supportive of women in law,” she said. “People would not think that, being from his generation, but he was.”

The chief judge said she received an email from a colleague about Wexler's passing, which called him the heart and soul of the Long Island courthouse family.

“He was just so full of vitality and always good humor. He always had a joke for you, something to make you laugh,” she said. “I'm going to miss that. I'm going to miss his smile and his positive attitude.”

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue called Wexler “a trial lawyer's judge who loved the courtroom and the law.”

“He worked tirelessly and without ego to ensure that justice was done in every case,” said Donoghue, who himself tried five cases before Wexler.

EDNY Senior Judge Frederic Block, who practiced law in the same town as Wexler before either was appointed to the federal bench, said the judge was the first and for a long time the only federal judge in Suffolk County.

“He left a big imprint as far as bringing Nassau and Suffolk, Long Island, into the federal judiciary,” Block said. “Wexler was the whole show. Every case I had in the federal court was automatically sent to Wexler. Wexler was my private judge. The history of Suffolk County is very much wrapped up with Leonard Wexler.”

Former Eastern District Judge John Gleeson, now a partner at Debevoise, recalled Wexler's “Herculean effort” to get the Central Islip courthouse built during the late 1990s.

Gleeson, who also knew Wexler from the prosecutor's side before joining the bench in 1994, credited his former colleague with being a driving force behind the project.

“In every phase of the development and construction, he was the court's representative on the job,” Gleeson said. He noted that colleagues have plenty to fondly remember Wexler by, but “chief among them, he got that beautiful courthouse built.”

Judge Denis Hurley noted that Wexler had been the “only judge out [on Long Island] for many years” before he joined him. He, like Gleeson, noted Wexler's critical contribution to the federal court building they shared as colleagues up until this weekend.

Wexler, Hurley said, was “unparalleled in efficiency” in the office and a treasured colleague who was always available to provide input and thoughts for his colleagues on the bench.

“He was amazing, how he could handle so many cases so quickly and efficiently—right up to the end,” Hurley said.

A number of judges noted that Wexler's position as a senior judge provided critical additional resources for a district court that continues to have four vacancies. The district's Long Island location will feel Wexler's absence in short order, Hurley said.

“It will have quite an effect out here,” he said. “It's going to put a strain on the people out in Central Islip, I think.”

Flemming Zulack Williamson Zauderer name attorney Mark Zauderer tried one of the first cases before Wexler shortly after he was appointed to the federal bench in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan.

“He had an incisive mind, a dry wit, and when I ran CLE panels on various litigation subjects I always made a point of inviting him to be on the panel because lawyers very much enjoyed hearing his views on litigation strategy,” Zauderer said. “Some have referred to him as old school, which I think is true in the sense that he required respect for the courtroom and litigation process. I think most lawyers felt that added dignity to the courtroom.”

Wexler, born in 1924, graduated from New York University School of Law in 1950. He was a criminal defense lawyer in Smithtown and Bay Shore from 1950 to 1983.

One of Wexler's most noteworthy cases as a federal judge was that of Baby Jane Doe, a severely handicapped child who was born with spina bifida, a failure of the spine to close. Her parents decided not to seek life-prolonging surgery because she would be paralyzed, severely retarded and be unaware of her surroundings.

Federal officials sued for her medical records, seeking to determine whether her parents were denying her rights as a person with severe disabilities. Wexler ruled that the parent's decision not to seek surgery ”was a reasonable one based on due consideration of the medical options available and on a genuine concern for the best interests of the child.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously agreed.

Recent high-profile cases included that of ex-Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke, ex-Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy's 2016-17 soccer team.

As an attorney in private practice and a judge, Wexler was known for trying cases rather than settling them. “I tried more cases in civil and criminal courts than any other lawyer in the state,” he said in an interview. “I'm not known as a great settler.”

Wexler, who received the Purple Heart, was fond of telling people that he had been hospitalized once in 93 years. Assigned to Company C Tank Destroyer Battalion, he was wounded during the opening days of the Battle of the Bulge, in which American forces incurred high casualties. His unit lost many soldiers.

“I was no hero. I was sitting in a foxhole and was hit by shrapnel,” Wexler said in a recent interview, proudly adding that it was the only time he was ever in a hospital. “I was born at home in East New York, Brooklyn, not a hospital.”

Staff writer David Handschuh contributed to this story.