Judith J. Gische

The Hon. Judith J. Gische concentrates her practice on alternative dispute resolution and commercial litigation. She also has extensive experience with real estate and matrimonial law matters. Judge Gische has developed a national reputation for resolving complex disputes.

Prior to joining Blank Rome, Judge Gische spent more than 30 years serving as a judge at all levels of the New York State Court System. She most recently served as an Appellate Division Justice, First Department, deciding appeals in civil and criminal cases. Prior to 2012, Judge Gische served as a trial court judge presiding over both bench and jury trials, managing cases through pre-trial discovery and dispositive motion practice, and mediating and settling the thousands of cases on her docket of commercial disputes, torts, matrimonial, and real estate matters.

Her judicial experience includes serving on appellate panels deciding over 6,000 appeals. She has also presided over thousands of cases at the trial level, written hundreds of dispositive motion decisions, and overseen hundreds of cases that have gone to trial. While on the trial court, Judge Gische authored hundreds of reported decisions. She is also credited with 38 signed Appellate Division decisions in addition to being the primary author on hundreds of others.

Prior to serving on the bench, she served as a private practice attorney, concentrating on commercial, corporate, and real estate matters in both state and federal court.

She is a committee member of the New York Pattern Jury Instructions and also serves on New York State Chief Judge’s Committee on Evidence. She is a prolific writer for law journals and other publications. She is co-author of the chapter “Letters of Credit” in Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts. She often lectures at and/or organizes moderated panels before professional groups.

• Webinar

  Litigation and Employment Law Issues for In-House Counsel

  Blank Rome-Hosted Live CLE Webinar December 5–7, 2023

  Gregory M. Bordo, Harrison Brown, Leigh Ann Buziak, Melanie S. Carter, Caroline Powell Donelan, Judith J. Gische

• Case

  Blank Rome Secures Unanimous Reversal in NY Supreme Court Appellate Division for Winston Salem RI LLC

  June 23, 2023

  Arash Beral, John C. Kessler, Harris N. Cogan, Judith J. Gische

• Article

  When Baseball, Television and Arbitration Collide

  New York Law Journal May 23, 2023

  Judith J. Gische

• Press Release

  Former Judge Judith J. Gische Joins Blank Rome’s Corporate Litigation Group as Senior Counsel in New York

  March 9, 2023

  Judith J. Gische

See all News and Views

• 2022, Doris S. Hoffman Service Award, presented by the New York County Women’s Bar Association 
• 2021, Conspicuous Service Award, presented by the New York County Lawyers Association
• 2020, The Hon. Sondra M. Miller Award, presented by FamilyKind
• 2019, Co-Honoree with the Justices of the Appellate Division, First Department, presented by the Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert
• 2018, Award of Distinction, presented by The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center for Elder Justice
• 2017, Benjamin J. Cardozo Memorial Award Recipient, presented by the Jewish Lawyers Guild
• 2015, Distinguished Alumni Award, presented by The University of Buffalo
• 2015, Co-Honoree with Women Justice of the Appellate Division, presented by the Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert
• 2013, Co-Honoree with Women Justices of the Appellate Division, First Department, presented by the New York Women’s Bar Association
• 2013, Distinguished Service Award, presented by Law Secretaries and Law Assistant’s Collegium, Inc.

Memberships

• New York County Bar Association
• New York State Bar Association
• Association of the Bar of the City of New York
• Association of New York State Supreme Court Judges
• New York Association of Women Judges

Judge Gische has served as an adjunct professor at New York Law School on the Anatomy of a New York Divorce. She also previously served as a lecturer at the Summer Justice Academy for Young Women, NYSWJA and Pace Law School.

She is an active member of various bar and legal associations, including currently the Judicial Section of the New York County Bar Association (2009 to present), the Committee on Procedures for Judicial Discipline of the New York State Bar Association (2010 to present), and the Board of Directors of the Women’s Bar Association of New York (2013 to present).

Judge Gische also serves on Chief Judge Janet DiFiore’s Advisory Committee on Evidence (2016 to present), the Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions Association of Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New York (2017 to present), the Deans Advisory Committee of the State University of New York Law School at Buffalo (2014 to present), the CLE Board (2020 to present), and co-chair of the OCA’s Advisory Committee for Persons with Disabilities (2022 to present).

Admissions

• New York
• U.S. District Court - Eastern District of New York
• U.S. District Court - Northern District of New York
• U.S. District Court - Southern District of New York
• U.S. Tax Court
• United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Education

• University at Buffalo Law School, JD
• University of Buffalo, State University of New York, BA, magna cum laude