New York, NY, Tuesday, November 12, 2024 – The Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (“WBASNY”) is pleased to announce that the New York State Court System has successfully implemented a Paid Parental Leave Policy for court employees, offering up to 12 weeks of fully paid leave to bond with a newborn, adopted or foster child. Employees are entitled to continued insurance benefits, employer contributions, bi-weekly leave accruals, holiday pay, and retirement service credit during parental leave. Since the policy’s effective date of April 1, 2024, nearly 200 court employees across all job titles and their families have benefitted from it, with over half being women.

WBASNY thanks the entire Hon. Betty Weinberg Ellerin Committee on Women in the Courts, which advocated to secure these significant benefits for employees and their families. The Committee is led by WBASNY members, the Honorable Betty Weinberg Ellerin (Ret.) and the Honorable Llinét M. Rosado, New York Appellate Division, First Judicial Department.

In addition, WBASNY is happy to share that the New York State Court System has increased the grade level and pay for Support Magistrates in recognition of their crucial work and the need to fill critical positions. Throughout New York’s family courts, Support Magistrates serve as quasi-judicial appointees responsible for hearing extremely sensitive matters involving children and families, ranging from child neglect, adoption, juvenile delinquency, paternity, domestic violence, and child custody to visitation and support. The hope is the increased pay will attract more individuals to do this vital work and address the backlog of these cases.

WBASNY applauds the New York Court System for these initiatives, which significantly impacts the lives of women and children in New York and advances WBASNY’s mission to promote the fair and equal administration of justice.

For more information about the New York City Family Court Support Magistrate openings, including how to apply, visit: https://www.nycourts.gov/legacyPDFs/careers/statewide/22419.pdf

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The Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY) is the professional membership organization of choice for nearly 4,000 attorneys throughout New York State and the largest statewide women’s bar association in the country. For more than four decades, WBASNY has been a singularly important resource for women lawyers, providing professional networking, continuing legal education programming, leadership training, and advocacy for the rights of women, children, and families. Through involvement with WBASNY’s 20 regional chapters and its 40-plus substantive law committees, WBASNY’s members collaborate with one another on a variety of issues and perform public and community service, in furtherance of its mission to promote the advancement of the status of women in society and women in the legal profession; to promote the fair and equal administration of justice; and to act as a unified voice for its members with respect to issues of statewide, national and international significance to women generally and women attorneys in particular. WBASNY holds United Nations NGO status with the U.N.’s Department of Public Information, and Special Consultative status in association with the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). WBASNY is also a founding member of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations.