James A. Yates
Hon. James A. Yates served as counsel for five Speakers of the NYS Assembly from 1979 to 1987 and then again from 2011 to 2015.
Hon. James A. Yates served as counsel for five Speakers of the NYS Assembly from 1979 to 1987 and then again from 2011 to 2015.
Jim was appointed to sit as a judge in the New York State Court of Claims in 1992 and was elected a Justice of the NY State Supreme Court in 1997. He served in that capacity in the First Judicial District (Manhattan) in Criminal Term and the Commercial Division from 1992 to 2011.
Throughout his legal career, he has taught criminal law, ethics and legislative process at four law schools. He has published in the areas of grand jury practice and procedure, white-collar crime and criminal procedure. He has served as Commissioner on the New York State Sentencing Guidelines Commission, the Commission on Uniform State Laws, as a Board Member of the IOLA Board for New York, and as a Commissioner for the NYS Joint Commission on Public Ethics.
Jim has served as a Member of the National Advisory Board of Bodega de la Familia, a Neighborhood Drug Crisis Center and as a Member of the Board of Advisors to the Andrew Glover Youth Program. He is currently a member of the Board of the Legal Action Center.
He obtained his A.B. cum laude from Princeton University and his law degree from Rutgers Law School.