Law Links - December 2016

Two School of Law graduates are among seven nominees for the state Court of Appeals

Justice Erin M. Peradotto ‘84.

Justice Erin M. Peradotto ‘84  

When Senior Associate Judge Eugene F. Pigott Jr. ’73, of Grand Island, steps down from New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals on Dec. 31, having reached mandatory retirement age, two other University at Buffalo School of Law alumni are among the seven candidates nominated to fill that vacancy.

The candidates recommended by the State of New York Commission on Judicial Nomination include Buffalo native Erin M. Peradotto, currently an associate justice in the Appellate Division, Fourth Department. She also was a nominee in 2014 and 2015.

Associate Justice Judith J. Gische ‘80.

Associate Justice Judith J. Gische '80

Justice Peradotto earned her bachelor’s degree from UB in 1981 and her law degree in 1984.

Judith J. Gische ‘80, an associate justice in the Appellate’s First Department, was also nominated in 2015. She received her bachelor’s degree from UB in 1977 and her law degree in 1980. A resident of the New York City area, Justice Gische is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of UB School of Law and is the wife and mother of UB law alumni.

For nearly two decades before her election to the State Supreme Court in 2003, Justice Peradotto practiced as a trial attorney in the Supreme Courts throughout the Eighth Judicial District, and in other parts of the State. She was appointed to the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, by Governor Pataki on December 22, 2006.

From 1997-1998 Justice Peradotto served as the Assistant Attorney General in Charge of the Buffalo Regional Office of the New York State Attorney General's office. She served as President of the Bar Association of Erie County from 1997-1998.  A former director of the UB Law Alumni Association, she received the Distinguished Alumna award from the Law Alumni Association for her "conscientious and diligent performance in the Judiciary" in 2010, among many other accolades. She currently serves as a member of the School of Law’s Dean’s Advisory Council.

Justice Gische was elected to the Supreme Court, New York County, in 2008. She began her judicial career in May 1990 when she was appointed by the Chief Administrative Judge as a Judge in the Housing Part, Civil Court of the City of New York. Justice Gische was elected a Judge of the Civil Court of the City of New York in November 1993, and in 1997 was designated an Acting Justice of the Supreme Court.

She began her legal career as a Judicial Clerk in the Law Department of the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, having served from November 1980 to January 1982. From January 1982 to May 1990, Justice Gische was a Senior Attorney with Richenthal Abrams & Moss in New York City, a general practice firm concentrating in complex real estate and commercial litigation in state and federal courts.

Justice Gische received the Distinguished Alumna award from the Law Alumni Association for her "conscientious and diligent performance in the Judiciary" in 2016, and serves on the School of Law’s Dean’s Advisory Council.