H. Patrick Leis III has served as Suffolk County’s Administrative Judge in the Tenth Judicial District since November of 2003. A nineteen year veteran of the bench in Suffolk County, Justice Leis began his judicial career in 1986 as a Family Court Judge. Thereafter, he was elected as a County Court Judge and served as an Acting Supreme Court Justice where he presided over felony criminal and civil cases from 1988 through 1996.

Having been elected to the Supreme Court in 1996, Justice Leis was named in 1997 as the Presiding Justice of the Guardianship Part in Suffolk County. In 2001, he assumed the duties of Supervising Justice of the Dedicated Matrimonial Parts. The following year, Justice Leis took on an additional assignment as Presiding Justice of Suffolk County’s newly created Integrated Domestic Violence Court where he remained until his appointment as Administrative Judge.

Justice Leis began his legal career in 1971 as a prosecutor in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office. In 1975, Justice Leis continued his career in public service in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office where, over the next ten years, he served as Principal Assistant District Attorney, Deputy Bureau Chief of both the District Court and Rackets Bureaus and Chief of the District Court Bureau. During his tenure as a Suffolk prosecutor, Justice Leis was cross-designated as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District Strike Force.

Justice Leis is an adjunct professor of law at Touro Law Center and teaches trial techniques at Hofstra University School of Law’s National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA). He has lectured extensively to the members of the bar and his colleagues on the bench.

Information about Judge Leis is also available on the Judicial Directory.