Harold Baer | |
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Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York | |
In office September 8, 2004 – May 27, 2014 |
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Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York | |
In office August 10, 1994 – September 8, 2004 |
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Appointed by | Bill Clinton |
Preceded by | Robert W. Sweet |
Succeeded by | Paul A. Crotty |
Personal details | |
Born |
New York City, New York, U.S. |
February 16, 1933
Died | May 27, 2014 Stony Brook, New York, U.S. |
(aged 81)
Alma mater |
Hobart College Yale Law School |
Harold Baer Jr. (February 16, 1933 – May 27, 2014) was a Federal District Judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He received his BA from Hobart College in 1954, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his LLB from Yale Law School in 1957.
Baer's father, Harold Baer, was a longtime New York Supreme Court justice, born in New York City. The son's own legal career began as an assistant to the General Counsel of Greater New York Mutual Insurance in 1958. He was then Assistant Counsel to the New York State Commission on the Governmental Operations of the City of New York (1959–60) and New York State Commission of Investigation (1960–61). From 1961 to 1967 he was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. He then served as Executive director, Civilian Complaint Review Board New York City Police Department from 1967-1968 before going back to the US Attorney's office as Chief of the Criminal Division from 1970 to 1972. He was then an adjunct professor at New York Law School from 1974 to 1983.
Baer was elected to serve in the New York Supreme Court for New York County in 1982 and served until 1992. While serving as a state trial judge, he was among the first in the United States to rule that a same-sex couple could be considered a family, so that the surviving member of the couple could benefit from tenant protections under the New York Rental Control laws. Although his decision was reversed by the Appellate Division, the Court of Appeals agreed with him in the landmark case of Braschi v. Stahl Associates Co.