 Supreme Court Justice David Demarest was first elected in 1993 to a fourteen year term as a Justice of the Fourth Judicial District and re-elected to a second fourteen year term in 2007. He sits primarily in St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties but is subject to assignment anywhere in the Fourth Judicial District. A 1973 graduate of Albany Law School and a 1970 graduate of St. Lawrence University, Justice Demarest began his legal career in private practice in Potsdam, N.Y. He later became Law Clerk to Hon. Edmund L. Shea and then to Hon. Michael W. Duskas.
Prior to his election Justice Demarest was active in Bar activities having served as President of the St. Lawrence County Bar Association; a delegate to the New York State Bar Association House of Delegates and a member of the Conference of New York State Bar Leaders. He was a charter member of the Board of Directors of North Country Legal Services and of Seaway Valley Crimestoppers. He served as a director and chair of the St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency. He is a past President of the Association of Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, is currently its Treasurer and a member of that Association's Pattern Jury Instruction Committee, which edits and publishes New York Pattern Jury Instructions, one of the largest selling law treatises in New York State.
He is the recipient of an Alumni Citation from St. Lawrence University in 1999 and the Award for Judicial Excellence and Leadership from the Association of Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New York in January, 2007.
Justice Demarest lives in Potsdam with his wife Sandra who is the Underwriting Director for North Country Public Radio in Canton, N.Y. They have been a host family for the Fresh Air Fund since 2002. |
4th JD
