Justice Joseph J. Maltese

Photo Joseph J. Maltese is the Presiding Justice of the Litigation Coordinating Panel. He has been on the Panel since its inception in 2002. Since January 2014, he also presides as an Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, Second Department of the Supreme Court of New York. From 1996 until January 2014 he presided in the New York Supreme Court in Richmond and Kings Counties as a trial judge handling medical malpractice, product liability and mass tort cases, as well as general civil, commercial and criminal matters. Prior to his service on the New York Supreme Court, he sat on both the New York City Criminal Court in Kings and Richmond Counties and the New York City Civil Court from 1992 to 1996.

Before coming to the bench, he was in private practice of law for 15 years concentrating in civil and criminal litigation. Prior to entering private practice, he was a law clerk to a judge. Justice Maltese is a member of the bars of New York, New Jersey and Florida, as well as the federal courts. He is a Fellow of The American Academy of Forensic Sciences and an ASTAR Fellow of Science and Technology.

Justice Maltese has a Doctor of Philosophy degree and a Master of Judicial Studies (Master of Laws for Judges) from the University of Nevada at Reno. He also earned Masters degrees from New York University and Touro College. His Juris Doctor degree is from New York Law School and he has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York.

Justice Maltese is an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York Law School where he teaches an interdisciplinary course on mass torts covering complex litigation, products liability and scientific evidence. He also teaches courses on scientific evidence to judges at the National Judicial College and at the New York State Judicial Institute. He has taught forensic scientists at Touro College and is a frequent lecturer to attorneys at continuing legal education seminars for the New York State Bar Association, New York State Trial Lawyers Association, the New York City Bar, the Practicing Law Institute, the Richmond County Bar Association, the Brooklyn Bar Association, the Columbian Lawyers Association and St. John's University School of Law.

Joseph Maltese retired from the U.S. Army Reserve after more than 30 years of service in the active and reserve components where he served as an officer in the Judge Advocate General's Corps., as an Armor Officer, and as an Intelligence Staff Officer. During his last seven years in JAG, he served as a Military Judge for the U.S. Army Trial Judiciary, where he presided over active duty courts-martials in Germany, Panama and at several posts in the United States. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Air War College, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, as well as numerous courses at The Judge Advocate General's School and The U.S. Army Armor School. After retiring from the U.S. Army Reserve, he joined the New York Guard as a Colonel, where he served as Staff Judge Advocate to the Commanding General. He rose to the rank of Brigadier General as the Commander of the Civil Affairs Brigade and retired in 2006.