Nearly 60 judges will gather in Suffolk County starting July 8 for a three-day appellate seminar focused on the Court of Appeals and the four appellate departments.

The seminar will cover topics such as implicit bias in appellate decision-making to fundamentals of forensic DNA analyses. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore and all six of the Court of Appeals associate judges will participate. The chief judge reinstated the seminar for appellate judges after a more than 10-year hiatus.

Attorney Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, will deliver the keynote address.

Seminar participants will have the opportunity to attend a review of the history of four-judge panels in appellate decision-making and proposals for change presented by Presiding Justice Alan Scheinkman of the Appellate Division, Second Department.

The seminar will close with a roundtable talk titled “Dissents, Concurrences and Collegiality,” facilitated by retired Court of Appeals Judges Albert Rosenblatt, Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, Susan Read and A. Gail Prudenti, dean and executive director of Hofstra Law School's Center for Children, Families and the Law and a former chief administrative judge of the New York courts.

Among the other speakers are faculty from Albany Law School, University at Buffalo School of Law, Columbia Law School, CUNY School of Law, Fordham Law School and Rutgers Law School.  U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton will also speak.

A committee, led by Court of Appeals Judge Paul Feinman and comprising members from all four departments of the Appellate Division—Hon. Rosalyn H. Richter, First Department; Hon. Cheryl Chambers, Second Department; Hon. Eugene Devine, Third Department; and Hon. Erin Peradotto, Fourth Department—planned the three-day program with support from Hon. Juanita Bing Newton, dean of New York's Judicial Institute, and her staff.

“This excellent program, which offers appellate judges a unique opportunity to come together and discuss emerging legal issues, is a culmination of the tireless efforts of Judge Feinman, the planning committee members and Dean Newton and her staff. I look forward to learning about the experiences of our appellate judges throughout the State and sharing our knowledge in our ongoing aim to advance the delivery of justice in New York,” DiFiore said.