Hon. Alan D. Scheinkman (Ret.)

Hon. Alan D. Scheinkman’s remarkable legal career as both a judge and litigator, includes his appointment as the Presiding Justice of the Second Judicial Department of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division. During his tenure on the Appellate bench, he heard appeals of a wide variety of complex litigation matters that included business disputes, labor and employment partnerships, landlord and tenant, commercial foreclosure cases, business receiverships, business torts (fraud and deceit, usurpation of business opportunities), matrimonial and family law, trusts and estates, defamation, land use and construction, health law and wage and hour cases. He also created and presided over special panels hearing commercial, matrimonial, estate and land use appeals.

As the Presiding Justice, he oversaw the largest and busiest appellate court in the country hearing matters from three counties in New York City and matters from Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties and four other counties in the lower Hudson Valley. He was responsible for the management of all operations of the court which is comprised of 21 judges and determines over 4,000 appeals and 12,000 motions annually. He oversaw the discipline and admission of attorneys and was a member of the Administrative Board of the Courts, setting state-wide court policy. He also served by designation on the Court of Appeals.

Justice Scheinkman also has deep experience and knowledge regarding employment law disputes. As an appellate judge, trial judge and litigator, he has handled all types of employment matters that include breach of contract, trade secrets, confidentiality agreements, covenants not to complete, wrongful termination, discrimination, sexual harassment, and wage and hour disputes.

In 2006, Justice Scheinkman was elected to the New York State Supreme Court, Ninth Judicial District, where he was immediately assigned to serve as the Justice Presiding of the Commercial Division. During the next eleven years, he heard all manner of complex commercial litigation disputes and presided over jury and non-jury trials and hearings and thousands of motions and case conferences that included partnership and business disputes, contract disputes, employment termination and discrimination claims, disputes over major construction projects, wage and hour, class actions, landlord/tenant and security class actions. Judge Scheinkman was instrumental in settling a majority of the cases that were pending in the commercial division due to his hands-on approach and relatability to the parties and their counsel. He also oversaw the Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Conference Part which primarily involved cases when a lender sought to foreclose on a home against the borrower.

In addition to his Commercial Division responsibilities, he presided over the Matrimonial Trial Assignment Part where he mediated hundreds of cases to settlement. Due to his extensive experience with matrimonial cases as a litigator, he was acutely aware of the enormous stress and emotional toll that the divorce process has on those involved and worked with both the clients and their attorneys in bringing parties to a mutually agreed upon resolution so that all can move forward emotionally, financially and legally. He has deep knowledge of the law, as reflected in his authorship of practice commentaries and a treatise, both of which have been widely cited
and relied upon by courts and attorneys. He advocates mediation as a means to resolution, rather than full-blown trial which may not achieve the result sought.

In 2009, while serving on the Supreme Court, he was appointed Administrative Judge for the Ninth Judicial District where he led several significant initiatives involving facility upgrades, technology implementation and case management, all during a time of budgetary restraints. He also created and presided over the Westchester County Compliance Part supervising discovery in all in general civil litigation. From 2007 – 2009, he served as Associate Judge on the Appellate Term for the Ninth and Tenth Judicial Districts where he heard civil and criminal appeals from city, town and village courts.

Prior to his judicial career, he was engaged in private practice and also served as Westchester County Attorney where he handled a wide variety of legal matters and disputes concentrating on commercial, employment discrimination, wrongful termination, matrimonial and federal litigation. As a trial lawyer, he tried numerous cases to verdict and represented parties in mediations and arbitrations. His legal career began as a Law Clerk for the Honorable Matthew Jasen, Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals.

Justice Scheinkman also has served as an Associate Professor of Law at St. John’s University School of Law, authored and co-authored works on appellate practice and New York law and has been actively engaged in various Bar Association committees and Statewide Commissions, including the Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions, the Commercial Division Advisory Council and the Judicial Task Force on the State Constitution.

Justice Scheinkman is available to arbitrate and mediate commercial cases throughout the United States.