The Honorable Leslie A. Stroth presides in the New York State Supreme Court Civil Term in New York County as an Elected (2023) Supreme Court Justice.
She was appointed Acting Supreme Court Justice in 2021. Following her election to the Civil Court of the City of New York in 2017, Justice Stroth was designated as a Criminal Court Judge in Bronx County for two years before returning to the New York County Civil Court bench in 2020. Prior to her election to Civil Court, she served as a New York City Housing Court Judge for nearly five years following her appointment in 2013. Justice Stroth has been a sitting judge in the New York courts for over 12 years.
Justice Stroth began her lifelong career in public service as a Public Defender with the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Division in New York County for 11 years, where she successfully tried countless jury trials in the Supreme Court. She then served for seven years as an Assistant Attorney General in the Office of the New York State Attorney General, litigating complex civil matters, including unjust conviction claims, in the Supreme Court and Court of Claims, trying over 50 cases. Justice Stroth was a skilled trial lawyer for close to 20 years. From 2006 to 2013, she served as a Senior Court Attorney in the NYC Housing Court. She also volunteered evenings in Civil Court as Small Claims Arbitrator and Legal Advisor to consumer credit litigants (CLARO).
Justice Stroth manages a myriad of civil matters in the Supreme Court in an IAS part. She is also a designated Gender Motivated Violence Act (GMVA), Child Victims Act (CVA) and Adult Survivors Act (ASA) judge. As a Supreme Court Justice, she has presided over dozens of complex jury trials, including several months-long trials with multiple experts and other witnesses. She has mediated settlements in countless other matters.
Justice Stroth serves as a member and officer of several judicial associations. She was elected President of the Civil Court Judges Association by her Civil Court and Acting Supreme Court peers, and by her statewide judicial colleagues to the Board of Supreme Court Justices, as well as Director of the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ), where she currently serves as Finance Chair. Justice Stroth was elected as Vice-President of the Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert (JALBCA) where she has held several executive positions as a Judicial Board member for over 14 years. Previously, Justice Stroth served as President of the Association of Housing Court Judges.
Through her work in these judicial associations and as a member of New York County Supreme Court’s Equal Justice Committee, Gender Fairness Committee, and the New York City Bar Association’s Racial Equity in the Courts Working Group, Justice Stroth is dedicated to achieving equal justice and diversity in New York courts. She is a member of the New York City Bar, New York County Lawyers Association, New York Women’s Bar, Puerto Rican Bar, Asian American Bar and Jewish Lawyers Guild, all of which promote diversity and equality in the courts, as well as the NAACP (lifetime member). She also sits on the Fredonia Foundation Board of Directors.
Justice Stroth received her Juris Doctor from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School, graduating with honors in 1986. She earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from the State University of New York at Fredonia, graduating with honors in 1981. She is admitted to the practice of law in New York, California, and Connecticut.
