Hon. Leslie E. Stein ‘81, who retired as an Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals in June 2021, became the Director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School in September 2021.
After graduating from Albany Law, Judge Stein began her legal career as the law clerk to the Schenectady County Family Court Judges. She then practiced matrimonial and family law for over a decade with the Albany law firm of McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams, P.C. where she made partner. During that time, Stein was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. In 1997, she left private practice to begin her judicial career as an Albany City Court Judge and Acting Albany County Family Court Judge. She was elected to the New York State Supreme Court, Third Judicial District for a term commencing in January 2002. She served as the Administrative Judge of the Rensselaer County Integrated Domestic Violence Part from January 2006 until February 2008, when she was appointed a Justice of the New York State Appellate Division, Third Department. In October 2014, Judge Stein was nominated by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo to serve as an Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals, and her nomination was confirmed by the New York State Senate on February 9, 2015. Following her retirement from the Court of Appeals, she served as a member of the New York State Board of Law Examiners.
Judge Stein is a past co-chair of the NYS Unified Court System Family Violence Task Force. She was a founding member of the New York State Judicial Institute on Professionalism in the Law and chaired the Third Judicial District Gender Fairness Committee from 2001 to 2005. She has also served on the Executive Committee of the Association of Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, as an officer of the New York State Association of City Court Judges, and as a member of the Board of the New York Association of Women Judges. Stein has lectured and developed curricula for continuing legal education of attorneys and judges on multiple topics. She has a long history of involvement in various state and local bar associations and in a number of other professional and civic organizations.
Judge Stein received her J.D. from Albany Law School in 1981, graduating Magna Cum Laude. She served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the school from 2012 until she assumed the position with the Government Law Center. She received her B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
