Navigating DV Prosecutions & Defenses during Migrant Crisis

The NYS Academy of Trial Lawyers is the largest statewide trial bar in the US with 5,700+ lawyer and judge members. We are committed to protecting, preserving and enhancing the civil justice system. Our highly acclaimed CLE programming features extraordinary presenters covering the most timely and important topics.

Justice Karen Gopee made history twice by her election to the New York State Supreme Court in 2021 and her appointment to the New York State Criminal Court in 2015, as the first Indo-Caribbean jurist in New York State. Currently, she presides over hearings and trials in a busy Gun Part in Queens. Prior to her election, she served as the presiding Criminal Court judge over the Youth Part, Domestic Violence Part, and Specialty Felony Waiver Part.

The Honorable Sylvia Hinds-Radix (Ret.) joined JAMS in 2024 after a distinguished career as New York City’s 81st corporation counsel and as a jurist in New York state courts, most recently serving from 2012 to 2022 as an associate justice of the Appellate Division, Supreme Court of the State of New York, Second Judicial Department. Judge Hinds-Radix, the first Caribbean-born person and woman of color, and the second woman overall to serve as corporation counsel, oversaw the wide-ranging operations of the New York City Law Department. As the city’s chief legal officer, she led the department primarily responsible for providing legal representation to the city, its mayor and other elected officials, and its myriad agencies in civil litigation matters. She also oversaw the operations of the Family Court Division, the city’s prosecutorial arm in family law matters. As corporation counsel, she created new divisions for Ethics & Compliance and Risk Management, promoted residents' health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, and secured housing for thousands during the migrant crisis. She negotiated a landmark agreement with the Legal Aid Society in Callahan v. Carey, providing New York City with the flexibility to address migrants’ needs during this emergency. Under her guidance, the department promoted economic development and recovered tens of millions of dollars in affirmative lawsuits. Judge Hinds-Radix presided over and resolved numerous cases through pretrial rulings, bench and jury trials, judgments, and settlement conferences. She served as an associate justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, and in 2020, was designated a member of the New York State Constitutional Bench. She also served as the administrative judge for civil matters in the Second Judicial District, was elected and re-elected to the New York State Supreme Court, and served as a judge in New York City’s civil and criminal courts. As a seasoned jurist, she handled matters spanning various practice areas across many industries, including appellate, bankruptcy, complex business and commercial, employment and labor, family law, governmental/public agency, personal injury, professional liability, and real estate (including foreclosure and landlord-tenant). Judge Hinds-Radix began her legal career with District Council 37, one of the city’s largest public employee unions. Her roles within the union included chief counsel for the Immigration Program, which she founded; supervising attorney for the Landlord and Tenant Division; and senior attorney in the Consumer Litigation and Bankruptcy unit.

Deborah Stevens Modica is the Supervising Judge of the New York City Criminal Court in Queens County, New York. She was appointed to the court in 1997 and reappointed in January 2009. Education: Modica earned her undergraduate degree from Thomas More College and her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. Career: Modica previously served as a Bureau Chief in the Queens County District Attorney's Office and as an Executive Assistant District Attorney in the Kings County District Attorney's Office.

Joseph is a retired New York City Police Officer and former United States Marine Combat Veteran. He received his Juris Doctor from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University in 2021. He served for eight years in the U.S. Marines and was deployed to Iraq. He then served in the New York Police Department’s Domestic Violence Unit for another eight years until an injury on duty cut his law enforcement career short.

Expertise: Assault, DUI/DWI, Domestic Violence, Drugs, Thefts, Collateral consequences of an arrest, Post-conviction relief.

Christina Blackburn, M.S., is an award-winning doctoral candidate at the College of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Since 2012, Christina has been researching violence against women and children and the systems designed to support them. Her research focuses on safety and reducing lethality in police interventions, the involvement of EMS and firefighters, and emergency medicine. In 2020 and 2021, Christina won three healthcare innovation awards from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for her work in this field. To learn more about her work or to connect with Christina, you can email her at christina@speranzaproject.org.