George Carpinello, Administrative Partner of the Albany, New York office of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, was recently twice nominated to serve on the New York Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals is New York's highest court.
Under the New York Constitution, judges to the Court of Appeals are chosen through a merit selection process. An independent commission nominates up to seven candidates from among whom the Governor must make his selection subject to confirmation by the New York State Senate. In December 2006, George was nominated as part of a group of seven to fill the seat of retiring Judge Albert Rosenblatt. George was the only non-judge to be selected among the seven. Governor Spitzer chose Justice Theodore Jones to fill the vacancy.
Only a month later, George was again selected by the commission as one of seven candidates to fill the vacancy of Chief Judge of the Court. Included among the candidates was current Chief Judge Judith Kaye, whose term was expiring, but who was eligible to serve one more year until she reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. Judge Kaye, who is highly respected, had expressed an interest in being renominated and it was no surprise that Governor Spitzer renominated her.
George was rated highly qualified by a number of various bar associations to fill the vacancies on the Court of Appeals.
Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, founded in 1997, has become one of the nation’s premier law firms. It has approximately 240 lawyers in offices located in New York, Washington, D.C., California, Florida, New Hampshire and Las Vegas. Best known for landmark cases such as United States v. Microsoft, Bush v. Gore, and In re Vitamins, the firm represents some of the largest and most sophisticated organizations in the world in their most important matters. The firm has been described by The Wall Street Journal as a “national litigation powerhouse” and by the National Law Journal as “unafraid to venture into controversial” and “high risk” matters. Boies, Schiller & Flexner can be visited on the web at www.bsfllp.com