Adjunct Professor of Law Gerald Lebovits has been a New York City judge since 2001. He is an acting Supreme Court justice in Manhattan and president of the 300-judge New York State Association of Acting Supreme Court Justices. He previously presided in Civil Court, for which he was the president of the 120-judge Association of Civil Court Judges; Criminal Court; and Housing Court, for which he was the president of the 50-judge Association of Housing Court Judges.
In addition to serving at Columbia Law School (since 2010), Professor Lebovits is an adjunct at Fordham University School of Law (since 2011), where the students elected him Adjunct Teacher of the Year for 2015-2016. He is also an adjunct at New York University School of Law (since 2012).
He was an adjunct at St. John’s University School of Law (2007-2012), where he was elected Adjunct Professor of the Year and received the Dean’s Teaching Award. He was also an adjunct and the Moot Court Faculty Advisor at New York Law School (1989-2007, 2013-2016), where he received the Order of Barristers Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award (for Moot Court), and the Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award and was elected Adjunct Professor of the Year.
Justice Lebovits was a staff attorney with The New York City Legal Aid Society, Criminal Defense Division, and a principal court attorney in Supreme Court, Criminal Term, both in Manhattan.
He has authored or co-authored eight books, including Small Claims Manual: A Guide to Small Claims Litigation in the New York State Courts (6th ed. 2022); New York Objections (23rd ed. 2023); New York Residential Landlord-Tenant Law and Procedure (15th ed. 2023-24); The Legal Writer: The Last Word (2023); The Legal Writer: Writing It Right (2016); Drafting New York Civil-Litigation Documents (2015); Advanced Judicial Opinion Writing (7th ed. 2004). He has also published more than 300 articles on civil practice, criminal law and procedure, evidence, ethics, law and psychiatry, family law, landlord-tenant law, judicial wellness, legal writing, and trial and appellate advocacy. Most of his publications are available for free on SSRN.
Lebovits received an LL.M. (in criminal justice), New York University School of Law (1986); M.C.L., Tulane University School of Law (1980); LL.L. (J.D. equivalent), University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, Civil Law Section (1979); and B.A., Carleton University (1976).