Judge Geraci moving to senior status

U.S. District Court Judge Frank P. Geraci Jr. announced Wednesday that he has notified President Joe Biden that he intends to assume senior judge status on April 1.

Geraci will continue to serve the Western District of New York with a reduced caseload.

Geraci began his career as an Assistant Monroe County District Attorney.

In 1983, Geraci was appointed as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of New York. He served in that office until 1987.

In 1987, Geraci and Jonathan Feldman, also an Assistant United States Attorney, formed the law firm of Geraci and Feldman. They practiced civil and criminal litigation.

The pai also owned United States Arbitration and Mediation of Upstate New York, an organization that trained and hired mediators to help resolve litigation disputes.

In 1991, Geraci was elected to Rochester City Court while Feldman was appointed as the first Federal Public Defender for the Western District of New York and later went on to become a federal magistrate judge.

In 1998, Geraci was elected to Monroe County Court where he presided over thousands of felony cases.

In March 2012, President Barack Obama nominated Geraci for the federal bench and he was confirmed by a unanimous vote of the Senate.

Geraci has presided over more than 80 jury trials. He served as the chief judge of the Western District of New York for six years.

Geraci announced the transition in a news release. In the announcement he wrote that his decision “was greatly influenced by the fact that such action will allow for an additional judge to be appointed to a court that has one of the highest caseloads per judge of any in the nation.”

He wrote that “it has been a tremendous pleasure serving the citizens of the Western District of New York as an active judge, and he will continue to do so in his senior  capacity.”