To the editor:

As a trial lawyer with nearly 40 years of experience appearing before every type of judge imaginable, I feel uniquely qualified to express an opinion on the qualities necessary to be a judge of the highest quality. In the race for Supreme Court justice in New York’s Fourth Judicial District, one candidate possesses all of those qualities and more. That candidate is Julie Garcia.

I have known the attorney Julie Garcia for almost 20 years and have seen her practice in multiple roles in our profession: both prosecutor and defense attorney, family court attorney and in civil proceedings. In each and every instance she has conducted herself with the utmost integrity, character and professionalism.

More importantly, for the past 20 years I have known the person Julie Garcia and am proud to call her a friend and colleague.

She possesses all of the most important qualities a great judge has. She has impartiality and an open mind as well as a firm knowledge of the law she is practicing. She has experience as a trial lawyer in the real trenches of the courtrooms of the Fourth Judicial District, which is precisely the experience one needs to then sit on the bench and preside fairly over just these types of cases.

Again more importantly, it is because of who Julie is as a person, with the unique qualities she gained growing up in a small, rural town in the Adirondacks, the daughter and granddaughter of iron miners, who put herself through college and law school, and went on to build a successful law practice in those same Adirondack towns, that allows her to relate to, empathize with and be fair to everyone she comes in contact with no matter their social standing, education or background. And that is the most important quality necessary to be a great judge, and one which everyone who knows Julie knows she possesses. I urge all to vote for her.

Marc Zuckerman, Esq.

Bolton Landing