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Professor Hutter to Serve as Reporter to New Judicial Committee

Professor Michael Hutter

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Professor Michael J. Hutter will put his command of New York evidence law to use as the appointed reporter for the state's new Judicial Advisory Committee on Evidence.

The committee members, designated by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, will be "charged with compiling a guide to New York's existing law of evidence that will be readily available to judges, lawyers and the public," according to a July 25 press release. The effort will be co-chaired by retired New York State Court of Appeals Judge Susan Read and Nassau County Supreme Court Justice William Donnino.

"With its evidence law broadly dispersed among myriad cases and statutory provisions, New York is unique in lacking a consolidated source of the law of evidence," the New York State Unified Court System said in a statement. "Once released, the guide will be updated annually to reflect any changes in the law of evidence. The aim of the guide is to provide judges, lawyers and others with an easily accessible, important reference tool they can look to in discerning New York's evidentiary rules."

As reporter, Professor Hutter, described in the statement as "a widely recognized expert on New York evidence law," will be responsible for preparing initial drafts of N.Y. evidence rules for presentation and comment by the committee. He will then work with the committee to use those comments in preparing the final report. There will be substantial interchange between the members of the committee and Professor Hutter, both individually and collectively. 

Also in July, Professor Hutter was invited to serve on the board of editors of the New York State Bar Association Journal.

At Albany Law School, Professor Hutter teaches Advanced Evidence, Antitrust: Trade Practices, Business Torts, and Evidence. 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.

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

Michael Hutter