Seymour W. James, Jr.

Seymour W. James, Jr., is the Attorney-in-Charge of the Criminal Practice of The Legal Aid Society in New York City, the largest public defender organization in the country and the primary indigent defender in the city. In that capacity, he is responsible for the Society’s criminal defense trial, parole revocation defense, appellate and post-conviction criminal practices.

James will begin a one-year term as the President of the New York State Bar Association on June 1, 2012. In June 2011, he was named president-elect of the 77,000-member organization. Active in the State Bar since 1978, James served as treasurer from 2008 until June, 2011. He is a member of the House of Delegates, the Finance Committee, the Membership Committee, the President’s Committee on Access to Justice and the Special Committee on Strategic Planning. Within the Criminal Justice Section, James serves as a member-at-large of its Executive Committee. He is a fellow of the New York Bar Foundation and a member of the board of directors of the New York State Defenders Association.

James is a past president of the Queens County Bar Association, and has served on a number of that Association’s committees, including its Judiciary Committee. He is also a member of the Macon B Allen Black Bar Association and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association.

In addition to his bar association activities, James is a member of Chief Judge Lippman’s Justice Task Force, the New York State Permanent Sentencing Commission, the Departmental Disciplinary Committee for the First Judicial Department, the Committee on Character and Fitness for the Second Judicial Department and the Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commission for the Second Judicial Department. He also serves as the secretary of the Correctional Association.

James received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and earned his law degree from Boston University School of Law. He has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at CUNY Law School and on the faculty of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Intensive Trial Advocacy Program.