Hon. Denise A. Hartman
Acting Justice of the Supreme Court
Albany County Courthouse
16 Eagle Street
Albany, New York 12227
[email protected]
Justice Hartman serves as a Supreme Court Justice in Albany County, where she has presided since her prior appointment to the Court of Claims in 2015. She manages a full civil docket, which includes proceedings against governmental agencies, personal injury and malpractice actions, contract and commercial litigation, civil rights litigation, real property disputes, divorces, and other matters.
Justice Hartman was appointed in January 2021 as the Presiding Justice of New York's Litigation Coordination Panel, where she had previously served since 2019 as the Panel's associate justice from the Third Judicial Department. She coordinates discovery and motion practice in all mass tort litigation arising from the Schoharie Limousine Crash of October 6, 2018. She also serves on OCA's state-wide Advisory Committee on Artificial Intelligence and the Courts. And she is a member of New York's delegation to the National Court and Science Institute exploring sciencerelated issues in the courts.
From 1985 to 2015, Justice Hartman was an Assistant Solicitor General in the New York State Attorney General's Office. There she briefed and argued appeals in the four Departments of the Appellate Division, the New York Court of Appeals, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. Her appellate cases involved complex issues of constitutional and administrative law, tort liability, and civil rights law. In her later years as an Assistant Solicitor General, she reviewed and supervised appeals in environmental litigation in the state and federal courts.
Long active in the New York State Bar Association, Justice Hartman served as the Presiding Member of the Association's Judicial Section for the 2021-2022 term. And before her judicial appointment, she co-chaired and was actively involved in the Committee on Courts of Appellate Jurisdiction. She is also a member of the Albany County Bar Association.
Justice Hartman received her Juris Doctor degree, magna cum laude, from the Syracuse University College of Law in 1983. From 1983 to 1985, she served as a confidential law clerk at the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, and before that as a law assistant at Langan, Grossman, Kinney & Dwyer, PC in Syracuse, New York.
Prior to embarking on her legal career, Justice Hartman earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University College of Engineering in 1977. She worked for several years as a civil and environmental engineer for Barton & Loguidice, PC in Liverpool, New York, and for the Allegheny County Department of Planning and Development in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.