Albany Law School Mourns Justice Leonard A. Weiss '48

The Albany Law School community mourns the loss of Justice Leonard A. Weiss, Class of 1948, who passed away on August 17.

Judge Weiss, a retired Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, Third Department, was a practicing attorney in the Capital Region for more than seven decades and presided over New York’s second-highest court. He was 99.

Weiss held many judicial positions, including Albany City Court judge; Supreme Court justice; Appellate Division, Third Department justice and presiding justice. He also held many professional leadership roles including: president of the Association of Justices of the Supreme Court; chair of the Albany County Democratic Committee; commissioner of the New York State Public Service Commission; member of the Electoral College.

Judge Weiss Obituary

He officially retired from the court in 1994 and worked for McNamee Lochner Titus & Williams handling mediation and arbitration cases.

“Judge Weiss was a legal giant and an Albany institution in his own right. He knew everyone in the legal community and loved to charm a crowd with colorful stories from his time in practice and on the bench," said Albany Law School President and Dean Alicia Ouellette '94. "I had the honor of getting to know Judge Weiss as a loyal alumnus and friend. I will miss him. His death is a loss for our entire Albany Law community."

Weiss made his way to Albany by happenstance. As a solider in World War II, he was discharged after suffering an injury that ended his military days, but the Veterans Administration offered to send him to graduate school. He said he wanted to study law and the V.A. helped him enroll at Albany Law School.

“Albany Law School was probably the most significant thing in my life,” Weiss said in a 2019 Albany Law magazine interview. “It gave me an ability, and it gave me an opportunity I don’t think I would have otherwise had. It stressed legal and moral values—treating people with kindness, dignity, and fairness. And when I graduated, I was prepared both to pass the bar exam and practice law.”

Weiss knew no one in Albany when he started law school. He made friends with Arnold Rosenstein ’48, who then introduced Weiss to his cousin, Sandee Sanders. Weiss went out with Sandee that very evening. “I was smitten,” he recalled. Apparently—he asked her to marry him.

Weiss worked in private practice from 1948 to 1977. Then, he was appointed to a part-time judgeship on the City Court in Albany by Mayor Erastus Corning. In 1978, he was elected to state Supreme Court in Albany. In 1981, Gov. Hugh Carey appointed Weiss to the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court's Third Department in Albany.

In 1992, Gov. Mario Cuomo appointed Weiss to be the presiding justice of the of the Appellate Division, Third Department. He retired in 1994 when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.
A child of Hungarian immigrants, Weiss grew up in Buffalo during the Great Depression. He worked loading rail cars then pursued a chemical engineering degree from the University at Buffalo until he was drafted at age 19.

“Who in the world would ever believe that a Jewish kid who grew up in poverty in Buffalo, New York, was going to end up on the Electoral College?” Weiss said in 2019.

In 2005, Weiss received the Albany Law School Distinguished Alumni in Government Award.

Presiding Justice Elizabeth A. Garry, Judge Weiss discusses his legal career in this 2019 interview (NYS Courts)