Muldoon among nine honored by state Bar Association

Rochester attorney Gary Muldoon is being honored by the New York State Bar Association at the group’s annual meeting in New York City for his Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Criminal Law Education.

Muldoon is a partner at Muldoon, Getz & Reston. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Buffalo Law School, where he is also co-director of the Innocence & Justice Project. He has authored several books including Handling a Criminal Case in New York.

Muldoon was among nine recipients recognized at the Bar Association’s annual meeting. Six recipients were honored Wednesday by the Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section of the New York State Bar Association in New York City. The others will be recognized at the section’s May meeting in the Finger Lakes region.

Award winners honored at the annual meeting include:

• Kenneth P. Thompson (posthumous), David S. Michaels Memorial Award : After taking office in 2014, Thompson moved to revitalize the wrongful conviction review unit at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office. Since then, 21 people have been exonerated. Thompson died of cancer in 2016.
• Malvina Nathanson, Outstanding Appellate Practitioner: Nathanson has spent most of her career representing criminals in appellate and post-conviction matters including with The Legal Aid Society of New York City, where she was associate attorney-in-charge of the criminal appeals bureau. She is now in private practice.
• Heather Ann Thompson, Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Public Information: Thompson is an author and award-winning historian on the faculty at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Her recent book, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy, was named a finalist for the National Book Award.
• Rick Jones, Michele S. Maxian Award for Outstanding Public Defense Practitioner: Jones, a trial lawyer for over 25 years, is executive director and a founding member of Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. He is a lecturer at Columbia Law School and president-elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
• John M. Leventhal, Vincent E. Doyle Jr. Award for Outstanding Judicial Contribution in the Criminal Justice System: Judge Leventhal was appointed an associate justice of the Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department, in 2008. He released a book in 2016, My Partner, My Enemy, on his experiences presiding over the nation’s first felony domestic violence court.
• Preet Bharara, Outstanding Prosecutor: Bharara was appointed U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in 2009. He supervises an office of more than 220 assistant U.S. attorneys, who handle cases pertaining to domestic and international terrorism, narcotics and arms trafficking, white collar crime, public corruption, gang violence, organized crime and civil rights violations.

Award winners who will be honored in May include:

• Karen Murtagh, Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Correctional Services: Murtagh heads Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, a not-for-profit legal services organization that provides civil legal services to indigent inmates in New York prisons. She lectures and conducts CLE trainings statewide on prisoners’ rights issues.
• Cheryl Meyers Buth, Charles F. Crimi Memorial Award: Meyers Buth is a longtime criminal defense lawyer in the Buffalo area. Meyers Buth regularly appears on local television in Buffalo as a legal commentator. She has also been certified as an agent for the National Basketball Players’ Association.