Douglas Keith named Executive Director of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary.
First-ever public Code of Conduct establishes ethical standards for Committee members; agreement restores and for the first time formalizes New York City Bar Association’s role in evaluating judicial candidates.
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani today announced the appointment of Douglas Keith as Executive Director and Senior Legal Officer of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary (MACJ), alongside two reforms to strengthen the integrity and independence of the City’s judicial selection process: the Committee’s first-ever publicly available Code of Conduct, and a new agreement restoring, and for the first time formalizing, the New York City Bar Association’s role in evaluating judicial candidates.
Judges make decisions that shape New Yorkers’ lives, from family disputes to criminal cases and civil matters. The new Code of Conduct establishes clear and transparent ethical standards for those responsible for evaluating judicial candidates, while the agreement with the City Bar brings independent, trusted input into the selection process. Together, the measures will strengthen accountability and public confidence in how the City selects judges.
Keith joins MACJ from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, where he served as Deputy Director of the Judiciary Program and Co-Founding Editor of State Court Report. He brings a decade of experience focused on judicial selection mechanisms nationwide, court independence and the protection of individual rights.
“Judges make decisions every day that shape New Yorkers’ lives, and the process for selecting them must be worthy of the public’s trust,” said Mayor Mamdani. “With Douglas Keith’s leadership, our first-ever Code of Conduct, and a restored partnership with the City Bar, we are strengthening the safeguards that ensure judges are evaluated on their merits, free from favoritism and with the independence our judiciary demands and New Yorkers deserve.”
“New York City’s criminal, family, and civil courts make decisions with tremendous impact on people’s lives,” said Douglas Keith, Executive Director and Senior Legal Officer of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. “I am looking forward to facilitating a process that ensures the judiciary has the independence it needs to do its vital work, that ensures the city’s courts reflect the diverse public that they serve, and that is worthy of the public trust.”
“An independent and impartial judiciary begins with a rigorous and principled selection process,” said Ramzi Kassem, Chief Counsel to the Mayor and City Hall, who supervises the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. “Our new Code of Conduct establishes clear ethical obligations for every Committee member, including the Chair, while our agreement with the City Bar brings invaluable scrutiny and expertise back into candidate evaluations. Douglas Keith’s deep experience strengthening courts nationwide and protecting individual rights is the final building block that will help us carry out this responsibility with the integrity New Yorkers deserve.”
“I look forward to working closely with Doug Keith in his role as Executive Director to ensure a fair, independent, and merit-based selection process for every judicial appointment,” said Ali Najmi, Chair, Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. “Together with the restoration of the City Bar’s independent review, and our new Code of Conduct, we are setting a new standard for judicial selection in New York City.”
Establishing MACJ’s First Code of Conduct
The judiciary exercises enormous power in New Yorkers’ lives. The Mamdani administration is establishing clear standards for the people entrusted with evaluating candidates for judicial appointment. MACJ’s new, publicly available Code of Conduct codifies ethical obligations governing merit-based evaluations, impartiality, recusals, disclosures and conflicts of interest. The Code applies to every Committee member, including the Chair, and establishes expectations for addressing potential conflicts and appearances of impropriety.
These safeguards are designed to ensure candidates are evaluated fairly and consistently, free from improper influence, and to strengthen public confidence in the judicial selection process.
Restoring the City Bar’s role in judicial selection
The Mamdani administration has restored MACJ’s formal collaboration with the New York City Bar Association after the prior administration ended the association’s independent review of judicial candidates.
Under the new memorandum of understanding, the City Bar’s Judiciary Committee will independently evaluate candidates referred by MACJ and provide ratings and supporting feedback to MACJ. MACJ will give those assessments due consideration while retaining responsibility for exercising its own independent judgment.
The agreement restores an additional layer of independent review to the selection process, bringing the City Bar’s legal expertise to the evaluation of candidates for judicial appointment.
Building a more accessible and accountable judiciary
Today’s announcement builds on steps Mayor Mamdani has taken since the beginning of his administration to strengthen judicial selection and broaden public engagement.
On the second day of his administration, Mayor Mamdani appointed civil rights and election attorney Ali Najmi as MACJ Chair and signed an executive order directing the Committee to engage a broader cross-section of the legal community, including public defenders, attorneys representing parents and children in Family Court, and attorneys working in indigent legal services. The order also requires the Committee to regularly publish demographic data on the judicial applicant pool and create a searchable public database to help New Yorkers track upcoming appointments.
Mayor Mamdani has also announced three new judicial appointments—Cary Fischer, Natalie Barros and Andrés Casas—and nine judicial reappointments.
In July, Mayor Mamdani announced the full slate of MACJ members, bringing together practitioners, law professors and former judges with experience across public defense, prosecution, civil rights advocacy, private practice, academia, and public service.
MACJ evaluates candidates for appointments to the City’s Family and Criminal Courts, as well as interim appointments to its Civil Courts, and recommends qualified candidates to the Mayor. The Committee assesses candidates’ temperament, fairness and judgment as part of its work to ensure the City’s judiciary serves all New Yorkers with integrity.
About Douglas Keith
Douglas Keith previously served as Deputy Director of the Judiciary Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, where he led research and advocacy on judicial selection, judicial elections, ethics and court independence. His work included research on judicial nominating commissions and the importance of judicial diversity, advancing efforts to build fair, diverse and impartial courts.
Keith was also a co-founding editor of State Court Report, a Brennan Center publication focused on state courts and state constitutional law. Since joining the Brennan Center in 2015, his work has included research reports, legal briefs and judicial education programs focused on strengthening state courts and protecting individual rights.
He earned his Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy Studies from Duke University.
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