It has become customary for Albany Law School Professor Michael Hutter to lead a class in early January, while the law school is in the midst of winter recess.

So who are these students? They are New York State's newly sworn-in judges attending a four-day "Judge School," where they learn the ropes while transitioning from attorneys to jurists.

Professor Hutter has presented trainings at the program— presented by the New York State Judicial Institute at Pace University's Elisabeth Haub School of Law—for a number of years running. This year, his session, "Evidence Essentials For Trial Judges," was highlighted in a New York Times article entitled "Legal Boot Camp for New Judges in New York."

From the Times:

In an another afternoon session, "Evidence Essentials For Trial Judges," Michael J. Hutter, a professor at Albany Law School, gave the new judges an electronic quiz on whether certain types of evidence or testimony should be ruled admissible.

Along with the questions, the judges' answers were displayed on a screen and there were often as many wrong answers as correct ones.

And even Professor Hutter often offered the correct answer, appended by "probably." Clear-cut answers are not always available with nuanced points of law, he said, especially with little contextual information. Not to mention varying criteria for criminal, civil, family and other courts. This is where a judge's curiosity, wisdom and interpretive skills come in, he said.

"I now call as my next witness," he said to the class, moving on to the next quiz question for the new judges. "What's your ruling?"

Professor Hutter is also a regular presenter at the Judicial Institute's summer seminars for New York State judges and their legal staffs, among other CLE and training programs throughout the state.

At Albany Law School, Professor Hutter teaches Evidence, Advanced Evidence, Antitrust: Trade Practices, and Business Torts. Prior to joining the faculty, he clerked for New York State Court of Appeals Judge Matthew J. Jasen and practiced law with a New York law firm involved in antitrust and unfair competition litigation. A regular columnist for the New York Law Journal, he has authored a book and numerous articles on antitrust and unfair competition and served as editor of Model Jury Charges in Business Torts Cases.

Professor Hutter was one of seven nominees for the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, in 1998. He was appointed to the Commission on Judicial Nomination—the entity that selects a list of nominees for the Court of Appeals—in 2015. The following year, he was appointed to serve as Reporter to New York's new Judicial Advisory Committee on Evidence.

He earned his law degree from Boston College Law School and his undergraduate degree from Brown University.

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