Leslie Stein

In November 2020, Stein announced her plans to retire effective June 4, 2021.

Leslie E. Stein (born 1956) is a former judge on New York State's Court of Appeals. Stein was appointed to the court by Governor Andrew Cuomo in late 2014, and was confirmed by the New York State Senate on February 9, 2015.

Governor Cuomo nominated Stein to the New York Court of Appeals in late 2014. Judge Victoria A. Graffeo applied to the New York State Commission on Judicial Nominations to be considered for appointment to a second term. The Commission included Graffeo on its list of seven candidates for the position, but Governor Andrew Cuomo declined to reappoint Graffeo and instead selected Justice Stein for the position. Stein's nomination was confirmed by the New York State Senate on February 9, 2015.

She was elected to the State Supreme Court, Third Judicial District in 2001, and started her service on that trial bench on January 1, 2002. She was appointed, in February 2008, to fill a vacancy as an associate justice of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, Third Judicial Department. (Eliot Spitzer was the Governor at the time, a month before he resigned.)

She was in private practice for almost 14 years, starting as an associate and later a partner, at the Albany, New York law firm of McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Willams. She re-entered government service as an Albany City court judge in early 1997.

She graduated from Macalester College, with Phi Beta Kappa honors. She started law school at the Minnesota Law School, and after her first year, transferred to Albany Law School for her last two years, when she earned her Juris Doctor in 1981, and was ranked second in her class.