Michael Kavanagh was elected to the Supreme Court in 1999 and appointed to the Appellate Division, Third Department, by Governor Spitzer in 2008. Prior to that appointment, in 2006, Governor Patake had appointed him to the Appellate Division, First Department. Justice Kavanagh served as Ulster County District Attorney for 21 years before his election to the Supreme Court.

            Born in Lawrence, Long Island, he received his undergraduate degree from Merrimack College in 1965 and a J.D. degree in 1968 from Villanova University School of Law. After being Honorably Discharged from the U.S. Army in 1970, he served for four years as an assistant to the late Frank Hogan in the New York County District Attorney's Office

            Judge Kavanagh resides with his wife, Marilyn, in Woodstock, N.Y. He has two children, a son, Michael, who is in private practice in a personal injury firm in Kingston, New York, and a daughter, Megan, who is a program coordinator for America's Promise, a not-for-profit foundation in Washington, D.C.