Upon retiring from the Court, one of my predecessors, Bernard Botein—who served as Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, from 1958 to 1968 and in whose name the Court awards annual medals to exemplary staff—said that "the judicial robe can be very hampering, sometimes even a straitjacket, when vigorous action is required." Bernard Botein, Historical Society of the New York Courts.