HSoftheNYCourts Podcast

Manhattan’s High Line is one of the world’s great parks, with a rich history at the crossroads of historic preservation, the law, and the great City and State of New York. In this episode of Wrecking Ball, host Adrian Untermyer welcomes Jonathan Broder, former General Counsel of the Consolidated Rail Corporation (or “Conrail”) to recount Broder’s key role in the formation of the High Line as we know it today. In doing so, Untermyer and Broder offer a crash course in the intertwined histories of American railroading, government regulation, and urban rebirth. So put on your walking shoes as we explore the High Line’s long and quirky origin story — complete with urban cowboys, “pro-garbage” community boards, boxcars full of turkeys, and everything in-between!

Two of the articles in Judicial Notice Issue 18, the Society’s periodical publication, feature stories from the life of Benjamin N. Cardozo, once Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Host Eric van der Vort, Ph.D. welcomed authors Prof. John Q. Barrett and Henry "Hank" M. Greenberg, Esq., to discuss their pieces. Together, they explore lesser-known stories of Cardozo's life, emphasizing his sense of humor and his writing style. Tune in to gain fresh insights into Cardozo's life and legacy!

Lower Manhattan's Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse and Foley Square are now preserved and continue to define the aesthetic of justice in New York and the nation. But when the complex was still new, a greedy Chief Circuit Judge named Martin T. Manton orchestrated his campaign of judicial bribery from within the Courthouse's awe-inspiring halls — until the building itself served as an “inanimate character witness” in Manton’s downfall. On the second episode of the Wrecking Ball series, host Adrian Untermyer explores Manton's "justice racket" with attorney Gary Stein, author of the new book Justice for Sale, as they consider the power — and limitations — of using grand public buildings to inspire civic virtue.

In the premiere episode of Wrecking Ball — a new series featuring tales of preservation, the law, and the places New Yorkers love — host Adrian Untermyer welcomes author-historians Christina Greer and Anthony C. Wood to tell the raucous story of how ordinary people pulled together to craft New York City’s Landmarks Law, which safeguards historic buildings, neighborhoods, and landscapes to this day.

In the rough-and-tumble New York of a century and a half ago, enterprising lawyers like Paul Cravath and Samuel Untermyer invented the modern practice of corporate law – all while dastardly crooks grabbed headlines and forced innovations among the police who pursued them and the attorneys who prosecuted them.

Author John Oller, Esq. spent years researching this distinctive crucible in New York’s legal history, which resulted in his two monumental books, White Shoe (2019) and Rogues’ Gallery (2021). In this spirited conversation with attorney and historian Adrian Untermyer, Oller brings legal figures like Roland Molineux, Rebecca Salome Foster, and Alexander S. “Clubber” Williams to light while sharing dozens of other unforgettable anecdotes from these formative years in the history of New York Law.

This conversation was co-sponsored by the Woodlawn Cemetery Conservancy, which preserves, improves, and celebrates Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Woodlawn is home to many of the legal figures mentioned in this program and in Oller’s two books, and Woodlawn’s Director of Historical Services Susan Olsen joins Oller and Untermyer for the latter portion to share her unique insights. The program was originally recorded as part of Woodlawn’s Tuesday Night Book Club on April 12, 2022.

For further information about John Oller, and to learn how to purchase his books, please visit him online at www.johnollernyc.com.

To learn more about host Adrian Untermyer, please visit www.adrianuntermyer.com.

For additional details about the Woodlawn Cemetery Conservancy, including how to visit the gravesites mentioned in this program, visit www.woodlawn.org. 

This conversation with Henry M. Greenberg, Esq. and Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt chronicles the steps then-Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye and Judge Rosenblatt took to create a historical society honoring the courts of the state of New York. From the moments that inspired its creation in the late 1990s to its ultimate inception in 2002 and beyond, learn about the people that laid the groundwork to found this institution, along with its unique projects, during the Society’s 20th Anniversary Season.

The late M. Dolores Denman was a true judicial trailblazer; among her feats, she was the first woman appointed as Presiding Justice of any Appellate Division Department. In this special episode of the Judicial Notice Podcast, host Hon. Helen E. Freedman gathers three of Judge Denman's colleagues and friends — Judge Richard C. Wesley, now of the Second Circuit; Judge Eugene F. Pigott, Jr., former Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals; and Judge Erin M. Peradotto, Associate Justice of the Fourth Department, over which Judge Denman presided — to reflect on Judge Denman’s judicial philosophy, her historic appointment to the Appellate Division, and her influence on the region and the judiciary as a whole, as well as her undeniable kindness and strong leadership.

In this episode, attorney and urbanist Adrian Untermyer discusses George McAneny’s sprawling legal legacy with historian Lucie Levine and preservationist Brad Vogel, Esq. George McAneny is sometimes called “the most influential New Yorker you never heard of.” Over decades of civic activism, McAneny had an incalculable impact on planning, zoning, and preservation laws in New York and across the nation. And through his various leadership posts, McAneny can claim responsibility for helping to build the New York County Courthouse, Foley Square, and many other landmarks across Gotham.

For more information on George McAneny or to get involved with ongoing attempts to honor his legacy, please visit www.georgemcaneny.com. This podcast was produced by the Historical Society of the New York Courts in partnership with the New York Preservation Archive Project, the Friends of George McAneny, Archive on Parade, and the Hon. Milton Tingling, New York County Clerk.

Lucie Levine is an author, historian, and founder of educational tour company Archive on Parade. To learn more, visit www.archiveonparade.com.

Adrian Untermyer is an attorney, urbanist, and historian who fights for stronger cities and communities. To learn more, visit www.adrianuntermyer.com.

Brad Vogel is an attorney, poet, and Executive Director of the New York Preservation Archive Project. To learn more, visit www.bjvogel.com.

Host William H. Hinrichs chats with the Historical Society of the New York Courts’ most recent Judith S. Kaye Teaching Fellow Lauren DesRosiers on her experience teaching the course American Immigration and New York State to high schoolers in the Queens and Lower East Side Bard High School Early College campuses. Bill and Lauren discuss the unique aspect of this partnership of teaching legal history and civics through the Society’s grant at BHSEC, the challenges of online teaching, how history can help us understand the current anti-Asian hate and violence around the country, and most important of all, the students that participated in this elective course. Bill H. Hinrichs is the Dean of Academic Life at Bard Early Colleges, and Lauren DesRosiers is a practicing immigration attorney, focusing on helping queer and trans immigrants seeking humanitarian relief.

In this episode, host David L. Goodwin talks with Paul DeForest Hicks about the incredible influence of Connecticut's Litchfield Law School on the bench and bar of New York State at the founding of the nation, and how Litchfield paved the way for Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and other leading law schools of today. Paul DeForest Hicks is the author of The Litchfield Law School: Guiding the New Nation, and contributed a piece on Litchfield to Issue 16 of the Historical Society’s journal Judicial Notice, out now to Society members.