Legal News

Former Judge Deemed A-O-Kaye to Lead Paterson Investigation

By Ashby Jones

It was hard to imagine that Judith Kaye would stay out of the bright lights for long. The former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, who decamped to Skadden early last year shortly after stepping down from the bench, managed to maintain a sterling reputation both as a jurist as a stateswoman for New York’s highest court.

And now, after a year of relative quiet, the lights will shine again on Kaye. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Thursday appointed Kaye to lead his office’s investigation into the brouhaha surrounding New York governor David Paterson. Kaye will serve as independent counsel; Cuomo had been by many viewed as conflicted in the investigation given his likely intention to run for New York governor. Click here for the WSJ story; here for the NYT story; here for a NYT sidebar on Kaye; here for a NY Daily News story; here for the Albany Times-Union story; here for the NY Post story.

"An investigation of a sitting governor of New York is a complex, weighty matter indeed," Cuomo said on Thursday. "My office has conducted a preliminary review of both matters . . . and we have determined that there are credible issues that need to be resolved."

The papers are positively a-gush with news of the Kaye appointment. The Post headline reads: “‘Special’ Kaye Made Herstory;” the NYT calls her “well suited;” the Daily News says that in choosing someone to lead the probe, Cuomo “couldn’t have done better than Judith Kaye.”

As the NYT reports, Kaye was appointed in 1983 to the Court of Appeals by Cuomo's father, Mario. She was the first woman to serve on the New York State Court of Appeals and will not be paid for her work as independent counsel. According to the Post, Kaye was memorably described at the time of her retirement as similar to Sandra Day O’Connor “only more liberal.”

We spilled quite a few pixels back in 2008 over Kaye’s filing suit over judicial pay. Click here for the complaint. The suit hasn’t yet led to pay raises for judges, but a recent ruling by the state’s Court of Appeals appears to pave the way for pay hikes.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 12, 2010 (boomark / email).