Hon. Barry Kamins (Ret)

The Honorable Barry Kamins is a partner at Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins and a retired Supreme Court Judge. Before leaving the bench, he was Administrative Judge of the Criminal Court of New York City, Administrative Judge for Criminal Matters for the Second Judicial District, and Chief of Policy and Planning for the New York Court System. He was appointed a Criminal Court Judge by Mayor Michael Bloomberg on September 11, 2008, and was elected a State Supreme Court judge on January 1, 2013.

Judge Kamins is an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn Law School where he teaches New York criminal practice. He is the author of New York Search and Seizure and writes the Criminal Law and Practice column for the New York Law Journal.

From 1969 to 1973, Judge Kamins served as an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County where he was Deputy Chief of the Criminal Court Bureau. Before serving as a Judge, he was a partner in Flamhaft Levy Kamins Hirsch and Rendiero LLP.

At Aidala Bertuna & Bertuna, Judge Kamins has developed a practice in the area of disciplinary and admission matters as well as appellate work in the area of criminal defense. He was on the team that successfully overturned the conviction of Harvey Weinstein and has served of counsel to numerous attorneys in complex motion practice and appeals. He successfully represented Martin Tankleff in his admission to the bar, after Mr. Tankleff served 17 years in prison, had his conviction vacated, and graduated from Touro Law School.

Judge Kamins is former President of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and formerly chaired the Advisory Committee on Criminal Law and Procedure for the Chief Administrative Judge of New York. He currently serves on the Chief Judge’s Advisory Committee on Evidence. He is a past Chair of the New York State Permanent Sentencing Commission. Judge Kamins is past Chairman of the Grievance Committee of the 2nd and 11th Judicial Districts. In addition, he is a former member of the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board. He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees on the Historical Society of the Courts of New York State. He chaired the State Bar’s Task Force on Wrongful Convictions and is a member of the Chief Judge’s Justice Task Force dealing with wrongful convictions.

Judge Kamins lectures exclusively on criminal law for the Office of Court Administration to prosecutors and defense attorneys. Over the years, he has been appointed by the courts to serve on several committees dealing with problems in the criminal justice systems: the Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense Services; the Commission on Drugs and the Courts; the Committee to Promote Public Trust and Confidence in the Legal System; the Committee on Guidelines for Representation in Indigent Defendants; the New York Task Force on Process on Civilian Complaints by the New York City Criminal Courts; and the Assigned Counsel Plan Advisory Committee of the Appellate Division, Second Department.

He received a B.A. from Columbia College, a J.D. from Rutgers University Law School, and was admitted to practice law in New York in 1969.