Professors Jared Trujillo and Julia Hernandez among 18 appointees named by Mayor Mamdani to help shape New York City’s judicial selection process.
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NEW YORK, NY — CUNY School of Law professors Jared M. Trujillo and Julia Hernandez have been appointed to Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, part of an 18-member slate announced Wednesday, July 22 as the mayor moves to reshape the process for selecting judges in New York City.
The appointments put two CUNY Law faculty members—both scholars and practitioners whose work is deeply connected to the communities and legal systems they serve—at the center of an effort to make the city’s judicial selection process more transparent, accessible and representative of New Yorkers.
Together, their appointments underscore CUNY Law’s distinctive role as a pipeline to public service and a hub for legal thought leadership with real-world impact. From family defense and civil liberties to criminal justice and constitutional law, CUNY Law faculty bring their expertise beyond the classroom and into courtrooms, communities, government and public policy.
“CUNY Law was founded on the belief that legal education is a powerful tool for advancing justice and serving our communities. We are incredibly proud to see our faculty bring their expertise and commitment to public service to the work of New York City government,” said Interim Dean Natalie Gomez-Velez. “Professors Trujillo and Hernandez exemplify the kind of engaged, principled leadership that is at the heart of a CUNY Law education. Their work demonstrates how our faculty and alumni extend the law school’s mission into courtrooms, communities, government and the broader public sphere.”
Trujillo, a CUNY Law School appointee, is an Associate Professor of Law at CUNY Law, teaches Constitutional Law, Legislative Drafting, Critical Race Theory and courses focused on the criminal legal system. He previously served as Senior Policy Counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union and as President of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, UAW Local 2325. Earlier in his career, he was a juvenile defense and criminal defense attorney at The Legal Aid Society in New York City. He is also co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Rights Committee of the New York City Bar Association, co-chair of the American Constitution Society New York. Lawyer Chapter, and Law and Policy Counsel at Equality New York.
Hernandez, a mayoral appointee, is an Associate Professor of Law at CUNY Law, co-founded and co-directs the school’s Family Defense Practicum and Clinic. Together with her students, she challenges government surveillance and the separation of families of color and advocates for policies that support family well-being. Before joining the CUNY Law faculty, she practiced with Brooklyn Defender Services’ Family Defense Practice and Catholic Migration Services. A graduate of CUNY School of Law, Hernandez earned her bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Latin American Studies from SUNY New Paltz.
In addition, Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson appointed CUNY Law Dean Emerita Kristin Booth Glen to the Committee. Judge Glen was elected to the Civil Court of the City of New York in 1980, where she also sat in Criminal Court and, as a Sitting Supreme Court Justice, in both Civil and Criminal terms. In 1986, she was elected to Supreme Court, where she served in the Matrimonial and Malpractice Parts and chaired the Committee on Diversity. In 1992, she was appointed to the Appellate Term, hearing appeals from the Criminal and Civil Courts. She left the bench in 1995 to become the third Dean of CUNY School of Law and, after a decade of service, was elected Surrogate of New York County, where she significantly increased the diversity of the Court’s staff. Judge Glen is an Honors graduate of Stanford University and Columbia Law School.
Other members of the CUNY Law community serving in roles related to the Committee include Ramzi Kassem, a CUNY Law professor on leave who serves as Chief Counsel to the Mayor and supervises the activities of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. Ali Najmi ’09, a CUNY alumnus, chairs the Committee. Hernandez is also a CUNY Law alumna, Class of 2012.
The Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary evaluates candidates for judicial appointments and recommends qualified candidates to the mayor. The Committee’s work includes evaluating candidates for the City’s Family and Criminal Courts and interim judges for its Civil Courts, with a focus on temperament, fairness and judgment.
In January, Mayor Mamdani signed an executive order directing the Committee to broaden participation in the judicial selection process, including by engaging public defenders, attorneys who represent parents and children in Family Court, and attorneys working in indigent legal services. The order also calls for the regular publication of demographic data about the judicial applicant pool and the creation of a searchable public database to increase transparency around judicial appointments.
The Committee expects to issue its first set of recommendations to the mayor by the beginning of October, followed by a public hearing that month. The appointments reflect CUNY Law’s longstanding mission to educate lawyers committed to using their legal training in service of the public good—and the law school’s impact as a pipeline for public-interest leadership across New York City.
About CUNY School of Law
The City University of New York School of Law is the nation’s leading public interest law school with a dual mission: to recruit and train outstanding public interest lawyers and to diversify the legal profession so that it includes and reflects people and communities needed to transform justice.