Chief Judge Rowan Wilson of the New York Court of Appeals: Setting out to do good.

Rowan Wilson, who on September 12, 2023, was sworn in as New York's Court of Appeal's first African American Chief Judge, recently said "I can't say I ever set out to shatter a ceiling or break a barrier, I've set out to do good."

Indeed, before becoming an Associate Justice on the Court of Appeals on January 17, 2016, Rowan Wilson was already doing "good".  As the first African American partner at an elite New York City law firm, for decades, he spearheaded the firm's pro bono practice which provided free legal services to New York City residents who could not afford to hire their own attorneys. 

Now, having become Chief Judge, Rowan Wilson, arguably, has more opportunities to "do good".  As chief executive officer of New York State's vast Unified Court System, Chief Judge Rowan Wilson leads a team which includes 1300 judges and 15,000 non judicial employees.  

Since becoming Chief Judge, Rowan Wilson has consistently encouraged these employees to examine what opportunities they have, as individuals and as part of a larger organization, to do good. 

In this regard, he has stated that "Really the question we should all be asking is how can the government [including the courts] best spend its resources to improve the lives of people in the State of New York.  The fact is that courts can do much more than they are."  

Believing that the greatest good can be accomplished when courts make resources available to people in need, Chief Judge Wilson has worked diligently to expand the number of mental health and drug treatment courts, and he has encouraged the legislature to provide additional resources to family and landlord tenant courts. 

Perhaps as a result of these efforts, people will not focus so much on whether Rowan Wilson was "the first", but rather focus their attention on all the good they can do by putting the needs of those that they serve first.