NYCLA President Ronald C. Minkoff Calls for Diverse Advisory Committee to Revitalize New York’s Judicial Appointments

New York, New York – The New York County Lawyers Association’s (NYCLA) President, Ronald C. Minkoff, today issued this statement regarding the disciplinary complaint against Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

For the past six mayoral administrations, stretching back to Mayor Koch in the 1980s, the Mayor’s Advisory Committee has been a bulwark of our justice system, helping to ensure that at least half of the judges selected each year in New York City – those appointed by the Mayor, as opposed to those who are elected — are subjected to a process that, using Mayor Mamdani’s own words in a January 2, 2026, Executive Order, is “merit-based, independent, fair and publicly credible.”  Indeed, under that Executive Order, the Mayor is prohibited from appointing any person to the bench unless they are nominated by the Advisory Committee. 

Attorney Christian Browne raised this very issue in the July 18, 2026, edition of the New York Daily News (“Mamdani’s Judicial Panel is Non-Existent” www.nydailynews.com/2026/07/18/mamdanis-judicial-panel-is-nonexistent). Browne states that despite the brave words of the Executive Order just seven months ago, the Advisory Committee remains inactive.  According to Browne, the Mayor has appointed only one member to the Committee – its Chair, Ali Najmi – and its Executive Director has resigned.  That leaves a Committee with no staff and only one of its required 19 members.  The process of recruiting and appointing new judges has been brought to a grinding halt, making an already overburdened justice system even more . . . well . . . overburdened.  Worse, it will take months to get the process moving again, as new Committee members have to be appointed and new judicial candidates have to be selected and vetted.

The resulting delays will have real world effects.  As vacancies caused by judicial deaths, illnesses and retirements remain unfilled, judicial caseloads increase and backlogs grow.  Pretrial detainees languish in prison; tenants challenging their landlords get no relief; and other types of civil disputes remain unresolved.  We deserve better.

For 118 years, NYCLA has stood for a fair and independent judiciary, and a functional legal system that can deliver results to all New Yorkers who need it.  I don’t know what is delaying the Mayor’s formation of a working Advisory Committee – is it budgetary? Logistical?  Political? – but it doesn’t matter.  I call on the Mayor to immediately appoint a diverse and qualified Advisory Committee that will re-ignite the judicial appointment process and help meet the City’s continuing need for qualified jurists. Advisory Committee membership should not be based on any political litmus tests but should reflect a broad array of voices from the community. 

The work of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee is vitally important.  The Committee should be revived immediately. 

# # #

This statement has been issued by the NYCLA President. It has not been reviewed by NYCLA‘s full Board of Directors and does not necessarily represent its views.