Discussion on the untold secrets of Eagle Street.

• Author: Lippman, Jonathan
• Position: Chief Judge Lawrence H. Cooke Seventh Annual State Constitutional Commentary Symposium: The New York Court of Appeals: The Untold Secrets of Eagle Street - Discussion

CHIEF JUDGE LIPPMAN: We're going to reveal a lot of secrets but not the handshake, whether there is a handshake or not one.

Welcome. And it really is a delight here to be at the Lawrence H. Cooke State Constitutional Commentary Symposium at Albany Law School.

Lawrence Cooke, as you know, was a great Judge and Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals. He hailed from Monticello, New York.

He was a great advocate for the use of the State Constitution to grant to New Yorkers rights beyond what they were entitled to under the Federal Constitution.

He was a very proactive Chief Judge, who attacked Court backlogs, promoted civil rights, was a champion of expanding the role of women in the courts and the profession, and he was very active in the National Center for State Courts that had been founded really at the urging of Chief Judge Burger of the United States Supreme Court.

He was a great intellect and he had a generosity of spirit, he was a good old country boy, could tell a good story, and to me, he had a personal meaning, because in my first real important job in the court system, which was to be the Chief Clerk and Executive Officer of the Supreme Court in New York County, there was a lot of dispute as to who was going to get that job, and they decided that the only one who could make the decision was the Chief Judge.

And I had to go and I was a young man. This was thirty plus years ago, and I had to see Chief Judge Cooke and I was scared to death, and he was just lovely and warm and friendly. I was terrible at the interview, but he gave me the job anyway.

And I was always grateful to him. And then, the first time that I became a judge, a judge of the Court of Claims, I came to the interview, and who was the Chair of the Interview Committee, but Judge Cooke, who was no longer the Chief Judge at the time, but he was the Chair of the Governor's Committee. And I was just hoping he wouldn't remember how terrible I was at the first interview I had with him. But he was again, warm and friendly and terrific, and I became a Court of Claims judge.

So I have very warm feelings about Judge Cooke, and it's really terrific of the law school that you honor Judge Cooke and you honor all of us by having this symposium.

We have had such a mutually supportive, wonderful relationship with Albany Law School. The Court loves being here, the Chief Judge loves being here, and the law school has so much energy and it really is a great place, and we're so delighted to be here tonight.

I also want to note that the law school provides us with great talent that in clerks past, present and future come from Albany Law School. And to do them all would take, you know, the entire couple of hours, but let me just give you a sense of the relationship of the law school to the Court. All three of Judge Graffeo's law clerks surprisingly enough, come from Albany Law School.

JUDGE GRAFFEO: One is right up there.

CHIEF JUDGE LIPPMAN: Lisa Lecours, Steve Sherwin, and Matt Dunn. One of Judge Pigott's law clerks, Kristie Stromecki, Deputy Chief Clerk of the Court Richard Reed, Assistant Deputy Clerk in Charge of Appeals, Susan Turturo, and she's somewhere here, I saw her right over there. Chief Motion Clerk Heather Davis, Senior Deputy Chief Court Attorney Margery Corbin Eddy, Court Attorney and Central Staff, Chelsea Cerutti and joining our staff next year, Albany Law graduate of 2012, currently a Law Clerk at the Appellate Division Third Department, Krysten Kenny, and an anticipated 2013 graduate, Kanika Johar. So we really do have a connection to Albany Law School.

And I want to thank, first of all, the wonderful Albany Law Review, which does such terrific work that we're all flattered at various times to be asked to contribute to the Law Review. There are so many terrific programs that you do that we're so grateful for, and the Law Review really represents the best in our law student population. And we're so pleased to be at another event sponsored by the Law Review.

I also want to thank your wonderful Dean, Penny Andrews, who really I so respect and admire. She brings such a terrific background to her job here. She has energy, she has great expertise, and she knows how to think out of the box.

And, you know, I think it's fair to say that the legal education in this country is at a crossroads, and it really requires creativity and new bold thinking, and I think you have that very much at this law school with Dean Andrews. And thank you, Dean, for inviting us, and we're so thrilled that you did.

I also want to thank the Law Review's advisor, President--not President. He's looking for a promotion, Dean Andrews. I don't know what for. But Professor Bonventre is just so terrific to work with and he has provided so much support for this symposium. He has provided so much scholarship on the Court of Appeals, and focus on our work by the Professor and by the students and by the Law Review, and it really flatters us, and it's so valuable for a court that we think leads the country, in terms of high courts and the Professor's work and the work of the law school really contributes so much to that.

And like I said, he's great to work with and he's so much fun to work with that we really have a good time, and I'm a great admirer of his. And tonight's program was kind of cooked up by myself, the Professor, and our clerk Andy Klein.

But we had a lot of fun putting it together, and we hope you enjoy it. As you know, the subject is the New York State Court of Appeals, The Untold Secrets of Eagle Street. And let me make crystal clear at the inception, that we are giving away the store tonight. I mean, everything--other than the handshake.

And those here tonight will hear things not even whispered any place else, and we're going to say it in the light of this room, and so keep it to yourselves.

We know that when you get out in the practice it will give you a leg up, knowing all these secrets. If not a leg up, at least we hope you'll find it interesting and entertaining. And we'll take it from there.

So the format is this: each of our panelists will present a five to ten minute presentation on their subject matter. I will be a very strict timekeeper and, you know, I'm going to take copious notes and keep time.

And then I am going to cross-examine them after their five to ten minutes. And they're very fearful of that, and I'm very fearful of doing it. So that's going to be the idea. I'm going to try to be provocative, but not too provocative.

All in the spirit of collegiality and fun and to be informational to all of you, and we really do have a lot of fun at the Court of Appeals, and it is a collegial, wonderful court. And we're very fond of each other and you may or may not see that tonight, you know, a different side for tonight's event. But it's a terrific place, and we all so enjoy being there and we so enjoy being with you tonight.

So let me start. The first speaker will be Judge Pigott and his subject is pre-argument preparation, "Reading Too Many Briefs." And he's going to tell you the real skinny on all of that. Judge Pigott?

JUDGE PIGOTT: First of all, I want to thank you, Vin. If I'd known this was a roast, I would have had a drink before I begin. Kristie Haslinger, who is my law clerk, speaks very well of you. I'm totally amazed, but nevertheless I've kept her on. And Jon, those are very nice remarks you made about Vin. Please note he was not under oath when he gave all of those remarks.

My original topic was going to be the real story behind Judge Robert Smith. I was told I couldn't do that, so I was stuck with the briefs.

Now I want to tell you that when Vin was talking about Judge Lippman--oh, and before I forget anything else, we've talked about all of these law schools and all these schools. I have a secret connection that no one else has in this. One of my law clerks is a graduate of the University of Durban, South Africa. How many other people in this room have been to ...

It's Gordon Lyon, who is one of my outstanding clerks and who was a clerk for Judge Rosenblatt before that, and just a great clerk and it's great to have him.

But when talking about Judge Lippman, they were mentioning that he's a Yankees and a Knicks fan. What they didn't tell you was he's a New York Jets fan. I'm a Bills fan, so I don't pick on anybody.

But I want to talk about briefs, not in so much of too much--too many briefs--but sometimes too much inter-brief. And I'll do it this way in terms of a sports analogy. Now one of the coaches for you who are sports fans, and I'm sure you've all played a sport, so this will fit in. But one of the coaches for the New York Jets a while back was Herman Edwards.

And in 2002, when the Jets were two and five, and one of the newspaper people asked him if they were going to quit he said "you don't just play the game to play the game." He says, "Hello! You [play] to [win] the [game]. (8) And that has stayed with him the entire time that he's been a coach. He's been to a number of places, now he's an announcer, but he used to say that, "you play to win the game."

And I want to take that statement and apply it to brief writing. And if I do this right, you don't have to write anything down, but you don't read the rules of a game, and say I followed the rules, why didn't I win? You play to win the game.

Now one of the people that's here from the NRB is Bill Hooks and he and his staff are in charge of the Blue Book, and the official citator in all of that. And of course, you generally have to follow what's in there. But what you don't have to do is follow it so religiously that you've got id, id, id, ops id, id, supra and seven pages, and I'm still wondering what that case was on page two that you did.

And my theory about this, after reading all of these briefs is that there are people who really, when they write the brief they say, I've got to get this through to those, to that judge on one level, to those five on...