Elizabeth A. Garry, who grew up in the Helderberg Hilltowns and is presiding justice of the New York State Appellate Division, Third Department, has been honored by the state bar association for her work in juvenile justice.

Garry and Rensselaer County child advocate Douglas Broda were given the Howard A. Levine Award for Excellence in Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare.

The award recognizes work undertaken to improve New York’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Past recipients include judges, child advocates, social workers, government leaders, court professionals, and community activists.

Garry, a member of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Courts of Appellate Jurisdiction, is a former co-chair of the state court system’s Richard C. Failla LGBTQ Commission.

“Justice Garry is committed to seeing that every participant involved in the court system is treated fairly,” said New York State Bar Association President Sherry Levin Wallach. “Her dedication to serving justice is evident in everything she does. She has had a positive impact on so many lives.”

In her acceptance speech at a Sept. 14 event, Garry reminded those assembled of the great responsibility involved in representing children.

“My colleagues and I have issued a strong series of cases trying to help ensure that children’s privacy and confidences are protected by their attorneys and the court. We have issued others upholding the requirement that children be zealously and competently represented in these life-changing circumstances,” she said.

Garry, who grew up on the Hillcrest dairy farm in Berne, was appointed to the Appellate Division, Third Department in 2009; she was named presiding justice in 2018.

“Farm life requires a level of discipline and common sense,” Garry told The Enterprise when she was appointed to the Appellate Division. “From my father I got a love of people that’s been really helpful to me.”

Her late father, Harry Garry, was known as “The Singing Farmer.” He performed locally and for years wrote a column for The Enterprise, called “Down on the Farm.” Active in the Farm Bureau, he was an advocate for farmers across the state.

Her mother, the late Margery Smith, a family physician, was a pioneer in her field as a female doctor serving the rural Hilltowns.

“I learned the bedrock principles of our society from them,” said Garry of her parents. They taught her, by example, the value of service to the community and of hard work, she said.

Garry, a Democrat, had been elected in 2006 to the State Supreme Court, Sixth Judicial District in New York’s southern tier where Republican voters were dominant. Before that, she had worked as a judge for the town of New Berlin and as a litigator for the Joyce Law Firm in Sherburne.

She graduated from Alfred University in 1984 after studying psychology and religion, and earned her law degree in 1990 from Albany Law School.

Both Garry and Broda, at the Sept. 14 event, called for an increase in the rates the government pays lawyers to represent clients assigned to them by the courts. Increasing assigned counsel rates, which have not been raised in most of the state in 18 years, is a New York State Bar Association legislative priority.

The New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Children and the Law created the Howard A. Levine Award in 1986. It is named for retired Court of Appeals Judge Howard A. Levine, who was the first chair of what was then called the Special Committee on Juvenile Justice. He continues to be a strong advocate for improving New York’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer