The New York County Lawyers Association awarded Hon. Sherry Klein Heitler ’76 the Boris Kostelanetz President’s Medal at its 101st annual dinner on Tuesday night at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The medal is conferred upon an NYCLA member whose record of dedication and service to the association and to the legal profession comports with the highest standards.
Justice Heitler serves as Chief of Policy and Planning for the New York State Unified Court System’s Office of Court Administration. She provides oversight for the court system’s statewide network of “problem-solving” courts, which include drug, community, domestic violence, mental health, veterans, adolescent diversion, and human trafficking courts. In addition, she works to develop new case management practices in an effort to reduce case backlogs and promote better case outcomes for litigants, victims, and communities.
Justice Heitler has chaired and lectured at various programs established by professional groups. For NYCLA she has chaired programs on Conservators, Receivers and Referees, Ethics in Government, and Joint Membership for NYCLA and the Puerto Rican Bar Association. She co-chaired the Continuing Legal Education program for the Millennium Women’s Bar Convention, sponsored by the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York and is still active in their Continuing Legal Education Programs. She has given several lectures to different lawyers’ groups, including a symposium on the issue of Parental Relocation.
Justice Heitler serves as a Vice President of the Fordham Law Alumni Association and has taught as an adjunct professor at the School.