George Bundy Smith

Smith began his legal career as an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, working on cases including James Meredith's successful litigation seeking admission to the University of Mississippi. He then spent a decade as law secretary to New York State Supreme Court Justices Jawn A. Sandifer, Edward R. Dudley, and Harold A. Stevens. In 1974, he served as administrator of the Model Cities program in New York.^[3]

Smith was a judge of the New York City Civil Court from 1975 to 1979 and a justice of the New York State Supreme Court from 1980 to 1986. In 1986, Governor Mario Cuomo appointed Smith to the Appellate Division, First Department, where he served from 1986 to 1992.^[3]

In September 1992, Cuomo appointed Smith to a 14-year term as an Associate Judge of New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals in September 1992. Smith's best-known opinion for the Court was People v. LaValle, a 4-to-3 decision holding that New York's death penalty statute was unconstitutional due to the structure of its sentencing procedures.^[4]

In 2006, Governor George Pataki was urged to reappoint Smith to another term on the Court of Appeals, although Smith would have served only another 16 months on the Court before mandatory retirement at age 70.^[5] Pataki declined to reappoint Smith and instead nominated Justice Eugene F. Pigott Jr. to the seat.^[6]

After leaving the bench, Smith became a partner at the New York City law firm of Chadbourne & Parke and also worked as a mediator at JAMS. He was also an adjunct professor of law at Fordham Law School for many years both during and after his judicial service.^[1][3]

In December 2005, Smith was awarded the William Nelson Cromwell Award by the New York County Lawyers Association.^[3] Smith served several terms on the Board of Trustees of the Horace Mann School in Manhattan.^[3]

Smith's twin sister, Inez Smith Reid, served as a judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the District's equivalent of a state supreme court.^[3]

• Ben Smith, "Judgement Day Approaches for George Bundy Smith", New York Daily News online, August 18, 2006
• Remarks of Chief Judge Judith M. Kaye on presentation of Cromwell Award, December 13, 2005 Archived December 9, 2006, at the Wayback Machine