Director of Judicial Accountability, Center for Community Alternatives
Describe your current position. What are the challenges? What do you like most about it?
I run a project that pushes for more progressive New York State court judges and seeks to hold judges accountable through a variety of campaigns, interventions, and experiments. I find it very rewarding. I think it’s absolutely necessary work in this moment and that it contributes to making our state courts better serve New Yorkers.
My biggest accomplishment so far has been a campaign I ran a couple of years ago, around the vacancy in the New York Court of Appeals created by the surprise resignation of the chief judge. That ended up being a nine-month campaign by a 160-organization coalition, all for a progressive new chief judge. When the vacancy opened up, we laid out a series of principles, priorities, and demands, and when candidates for the position were announced, we deeply researched and analyzed the records of all seven candidates and took positions on them. We encouraged the governor to pick any one of three and explicitly opposed three others.
When Governor Kathy Hochul picked one of the three that we opposed, we mobilized New Yorkers from around the state to call on their state senators to vote no. And we made history by compelling the State Senate to reject a governor’s nominee to the Court of Appeals for the first time in New York’s history. That was thrilling, but the real victory came later when the governor nominated Rowan Wilson, one of the leading progressive judges in the state, to the position, and he was confirmed overwhelmingly.
State courts are more important than ever because of all the ways that federal courts are changing and are changing federal law. I’ve been heartened at how many New Yorkers and how many Americans are newly appreciating how important state courts are and are choosing to engage with them in different ways, including by engaging with judicial selection. It has gotten easier to make the pitch for why people should care about state courts and why they should take action.
How did NYU Law prepare you for your career path?
In law school, I was quite clear-headed about what I cared about and the kinds of work I hoped to do after law school. I got very good advice from classmates, some professors, and career services counselors about how to think about choices during law school, such as summer internships, whether to join a law journal—which I did not do—what other extracurriculars to do, and what clinics to take.
I got tremendous support and guidance from Lisa Hoyes ’99, the assistant dean for public service. One rare thing I did during law school was take a semester off to work on an electoral campaign. I worked on Beto O’Rourke’s US Senate campaign in Texas in Fall 2018, before returning to the Law School in January 2019. Lisa was very affirming and encouraging of that decision and helped me think through the various consequences of graduating off-cycle—in January instead of in May. And when I was considering jobs that were less traditional than the jobs many law students take, once again, she was encouraging and very helpful as I was thinking through all the various considerations.
What were your favorite classes or activities at the Law School?
I was most engaged with the Racial Justice Clinic and the Racial Equity Strategies Clinic, which were both very interesting, exciting, and rewarding. As a sort of fun coda, my fieldwork supervisors in each of those clinics are now federal judges: Dale Ho is now serving on the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, and Natasha Merle is on the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
The two doctrinal professors I had who were most obviously passionate about teaching their subject and getting us to care about it were Daryl Levinson [David Boies Professor of Law], whose 1L Constitutional Law course I took, and Melissa Murray [Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law], whose Family Law course I took. Professor Levinson treated us as adults, and his lectures were highly engaging. And Professor Murray was high-energy and very passionate about her subject matter, which she connected to current events in compelling ways.
What memory from your Law School days stands out the most?
My most powerful set of memories is from my 1L fall, when the 2016 election happened. The weeks and months that followed were for me, like for many people, a time of great uncertainty and a degree of fear as well as a lot of introspection—thinking about what mattered most to me and what I thought I could contribute to the world in the short term and the long term. I have very powerful memories of thinking through those questions and settling into law school and figuring out how I would use my remaining two and a half years there to help me do the kinds of things in the world that felt most important to do.
If you could go back in time, what kind of advice would you give yourself?
I think it would be to trust that I was going to make good decisions for myself. Broadly speaking, I’m proud that from relatively early on in law school, I figured out what mattered most to me and what would help me toward my various goals.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
Posted March 27, 2025