Hon. Barry Kamins (Ret)

The Honorable Barry Kamins (Ret) is a retired Supreme Court Judge. Before his retirement 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 elevated to Acting Supreme Court Justice on May 6, 2009. Judge Kamins was elected a State Supreme Court Justice 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 & Rendeiro LLP

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 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 a former member of the New York Law Journal Board of Editors and 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 currently a member of the Justice Task Force dealing with wrongful convictions.

Judge Kamins lectures extensively on criminal law for the Office of Court Administration and 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 system; 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 of Indigent Defendants’ the New York Task Force on Procession Civilian Complaints by the New York City Criminal Court; and the Assigned Counsel Plan Advisory Committee of the Appellate Division, Second Department.

He received a B.A. from Columbia College and a J.D. from Rutgers University Law School.