From June 1996 to September 2018, Justice Andrias served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department. He was appointed to the New York City Criminal Court in 1983 and was the Supervising Judge of the New York County Criminal Court from 1985 to 1987. Justice Andrias was elected to the Supreme Court in 1987 and re-elected in 2001, serving in the criminal and civil divisions from January 1988 to June 1996. During his 35 years on the bench, he presided over innumerable motions, hearings, jury trials and bench trials. His signed, published opinions and dissents run the gamut of issues litigated in New York’s busy courts.

Justice Andrias received his B.A. degree from Bowdoin College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with high honors in Economics. He is a cum laude graduate of Columbia Law School and attended the Graduate Law School of the London School of Economics as a Visiting Research Scholar. Prior to law school, he served in Vietnam as an Army Intelligence Officer with the First Air Cavalry Division and was awarded the Bronze Star and Air Medal.

Justice Andrias is a member of the American Law Institute, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and has served on the Nominating and Executive Committees of the New York City Bar. He is an ASTAR Fellow (Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource Center), in the U.S. Department of Justice Financed Life Sciences Program for State Court Judges. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the George Mason University Law and Economics Judicial Education Program.

Prior to his judicial service, he was a trial lawyer for the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Division and in private practice, specializing in corporate and commercial litigation. He also represented clients in real estate, copyright and trademark, textile disputes and construction and building design matters. He represented the interests of a foreign consul general in all of that country’s commercial and trade issues. He has written and lectured on a wide variety of legal subjects – from Russia’s experiment with jury trials to science and public health issues. Currently, he is the author of the chapter Letters of Credit, in the definitive treatise Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts, Fourth Edition (West).