New York State Supreme Court · Manhattan · 1st Judicial District
Eleven candidates compete for six Manhattan Supreme Court seats
Manhattan's First Judicial District will elect six justices from 11 candidates in the November 3, 2026 general election. Six are on the Democratic line and five on the Working Families line; Hagler, Mendez, and Scarpulla were elected to Supreme Court in 2012 and serve in the Appellate Division.
Christopher Chin was elected to New York City Civil Court in 2021, served on Bronx Criminal Court, and is an Acting Justice of New York County Supreme Court. His current civil work includes motor-vehicle and Labor Law matters, and he has presided over civil trials.
Career & documented work
The candidate materials report that, as a Bronx Criminal Court judge, he handled felony and misdemeanor arraignments, bench and jury trials, suppression hearings and opinions, including matters involving the then-new discovery laws.
The candidate materials describe prior state and federal litigation involving motor-vehicle, Labor Law, contractual indemnification, premises liability, asbestos liability, municipal liability and intentional torts.
Hasa A. Kingo was elected to New York City Civil Court in 2021 and has served as an Acting Justice of New York County Supreme Court since 2024. Before taking the bench, he worked as a Manhattan assistant district attorney, an assistant attorney general, and a principal court attorney to New York County Supreme Court justices.
Career & documented work
The candidate materials identify Kingo as the current judge of a General and Medical Malpractice Part handling commercial disputes, discrimination actions and medical-malpractice cases, and as a designated judge for Child Victims Act cases.
The candidate materials describe his prior work in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the New York State Attorney General’s Consumer Fraud and Protection Bureau, and Supreme Court chambers.
Kathleen Waterman-Marshall was elected to New York City Civil Court in 2018 and has served as an Acting Justice of New York County Supreme Court since 2021. Before becoming a judge, she practiced civil and commercial law, represented children in family-court matters, and served as Principal Law Clerk to Justice Arthur F. Engoron.
Career & documented work
The candidate materials identify Waterman-Marshall as the sole justice presiding over New York County parentage proceedings under Family Court Act Article 5-C and as a judge of general civil, matrimonial and junior-commercial matters.
The candidate materials describe prior trial and appellate practice, representation of children in high-conflict custody and neglect proceedings, and service as Principal Law Clerk to Justice Arthur F. Engoron.
Shlomo S. Hagler began his judicial career in New York City Housing Court in 1999, was elected to Civil Court in 2003, and was elected to Supreme Court in 2012. He was elevated to the Appellate Division, First Department, in 2025.
Career & documented work
Elected New York County Supreme Court justice in 2012; he later served as Presiding Justice of the Appellate Term, First Department and was designated to the Appellate Division, First Department in 2025.
As an Acting Supreme Court justice in 2008, he established and presided over an Innovative Guardianship Part combining Supreme Court Mental Hygiene Law authority with Housing Court authority to protect vulnerable people.
Manuel J. Mendez was elected to Civil Court in 2003, appointed an acting Supreme Court justice in 2010, and elected to Supreme Court in 2012. He served as coordinating judge of New York City Asbestos Litigation before his 2020 appointment to the Appellate Division, First Department.
Career & documented work
As coordinating judge of New York City Asbestos Litigation, he handled a docket of thousands of complex products-liability and toxic-tort cases.
As a trial judge, he presided over hundreds of civil trials, including the 91st Street Crane Collapse Litigation, described by the court as the longest trial in the city's history and possibly the state's.
Saliann Scarpulla was elected to New York City Civil Court in 2001 and to New York County Supreme Court in 2012. She was appointed to the Appellate Division, First Department, in 2020 after working in private practice, at the FDIC, and as bank counsel.
Career & documented work
Sat in the New York County Commercial Division from 2014 to 2020 and was responsible for international commercial-arbitration matters; has written and lectured on technology and commercial litigation.
Member of the Commercial Division Advisory Council and co-chair of its technology subcommittee; serves on the Chief Judge's Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Committee.
Amy S. Taylor is a public-interest attorney who has worked at Make the Road New York, Legal Services NYC, and the International Refugee Assistance Project. Her work has included immigrant-rights, language-access, and civil-rights litigation and policy advocacy.
Career & documented work
Former co-legal director, Make the Road New York, where IRAP reported that she led attorneys and advocates serving low-wage workers and immigrant New Yorkers and oversaw the organization's immigration-litigation docket.
Former policy director, New York City Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, where IRAP reported she worked on language-access initiatives and related policies.
Joshua E. Goldfein is a staff attorney in The Legal Aid Society's Homeless Rights Project. He has worked on housing and homelessness matters in New York City and earned a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Career & documented work
He signed an October 11, 2023 Legal Aid submission in Callahan v. Carey opposing the City's request to modify the 1981 consent judgment governing the right to shelter.
A March 15, 2024 Callahan v. Carey transcript identifies him as plaintiffs' counsel for Legal Aid and records his argument concerning shelter access for newly arrived New Yorkers.
Sienna M. Fontaine is a Make the Road New York executive whose roles have included Co-Executive Director and General Counsel. She previously directed public-benefits work at Bronx Legal Services and earned a law degree from New York University.
Career & documented work
A 2025 U.S. Supreme Court docket filing identifies Fontaine as Make the Road NY's General Counsel and includes her declaration in litigation challenging an executive order affecting birthright citizenship.
During a post-graduate Skadden Fellowship, she designed a partnership between Bronx Legal Services and Montefiore family-medicine clinics linking legal and medical services.
Bob Cohen is a New York attorney and a policy and research director at Citizen Action of New York. He previously ran for New York Supreme Court on the Working Families line.
Career & documented work
In a May 2026 Public Citizen release, Citizen Action identified him as its Policy and Research Director and quoted him on the organization's support for the proposed Corporate Catastrophe Act.
Jeffrey W. Rizzo is a New York attorney at Levy & Rizzo, LLC. The firm describes his practice as including record-sealing work and trial litigation.
Career & documented work
Former Legal Aid Society Bronx public defender; the firm says his criminal practice has included arraignment and bail hearings, plea bargaining, motion and suppression practice, grand-jury practice, and bench and jury trials.
The firm's biography says he has represented thousands of criminal clients, handled civil-rights litigation involving wrongful arrests and police brutality, and argued successfully before the New York Court of Appeals.
