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Contact: Mark Mahoney
Associate Director of Media Services
518-487-5532
mmahoney@nysba.org
April 5, 2012
NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION STATEMENT ON
APPOINTMENT OF PRESIDING JUSTICE KAREN K. PETERS
"We commend Governor Cuomo for his selection of Judge Karen K. Peters as
presiding justice of the Appellate Division, Third Department," said New
York State Bar Association President Vincent E. Doyle III. "Judge Peters
has been a model of intellect, fairness and wisdom since she first
joined the state bench two decades ago.
"As a member of the court during the long illness of our friend and
colleague, the late Judge Anthony V. Cardona, Judge Peters' guidance and
leadership have been particularly vital to the administration of
justice. The people of the state of New York will continue to be well
served with the appointment of Judge Peters," said Doyle of Buffalo
(Connors & Vilardo).
Peters takes over the reins of the court from Judge Thomas E.
Mercure, who has been acting presiding justice since January 2011, when
then-Presiding Justice Cardona took a leave of absence due to illness.
Because he had reached the mandatory retirement age of 70, Cardona was
scheduled to retire at the end of 2011. He passed away on Dec. 4.
In 1992, Peters became the first woman elected to the Supreme Court
in the Third Department and won re-election in 2006. She was appointed
to the Appellate Division in February 1994.
A graduate of George Washington University and New York University
School of Law, Peters previously served as Ulster County Family Court
judge, Dutchess County assistant district attorney, counsel to the State
Division of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse and director of the State
Assembly Government Operations Committee. She also is a member of the
New York Commission on Judicial Conduct and is a former assistant
professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
The Appellate Division, Third Department, covers 28 counties in
upstate New York: Albany, Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Clinton, Columbia,
Cortland, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Hamilton, Madison,
Montgomery, Otsego, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Saratoga, Schenectady,
Schoharie, Schuyler, Sullivan, Tioga, Tompkins, Ulster, Warren and
Washington.
The 77,000-member New York State Bar Association is the largest
voluntary state bar association in the nation. It was founded in
1876.
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