Paul George Feinman was an American attorney who served as an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, from June 2017 to March 2021.
15 Facts About Paul Feinman
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Paul Feinman was the first openly gay judge on the appeals court.
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Paul Feinman's father was a small business owner in New York City, his mother a bookkeeper and later a Nassau County Department of Social Services employee.
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Paul Feinman earned an undergraduate degree in French literature from Columbia University in 1981.
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Paul Feinman attended the University of Minnesota Law School on a full scholarship.
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Paul Feinman began his legal career as a public defender with the Legal Aid Society, working in Nassau County and then in New York City; at the time, the courts had a crowded criminal docket due to the crack epidemic.
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Paul Feinman then served as law clerk to Justice Angela Mazzarelli for seven and a half years, from 1989 to 1996, first when Mazzarelli was on the state trial court bench and then when she was on the state Appellate Division.
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In 2007, Paul Feinman was elected to the Supreme Court; in 2012, Governor Andrew Cuomo elevated him to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.
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Paul Feinman was a member of the Supreme Court Justices Association of the State of New York, serving first as its first vice president and then as its president.
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Paul Feinman served as treasurer of the Citywide Association of Supreme Court Justices in New York, and was president of the International Association of LGBT Judges from 2008 to 2011.
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Paul Feinman was unanimously confirmed by the New York Senate the same month.
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Paul Feinman was the first openly LGBT person to serve on New York's highest court.
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Paul Feinman was regarded as having a "thoughtful and methodical" judicial approach.
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Paul Feinman was a Francophile and fan of the New York Mets.
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Paul Feinman abruptly retired from the Court of Appeals on March 23,2021, due to health concerns.