By the time he arrived for the North Hempstead Democratic Committee’s election-night results watch party at Westbury Manor, newly-elected District Court Judge Scott Siller was in the throes of a head cold.
In the few days leading up to Tuesday’s election, Siller and his fellow Democratic candidates rang as many doorbells as they could throughout the town to galvanize voters into going to the polls.
But during that last stretch of houses, Siller underestimated the early November weather and left his coat in the car, and when North Hempstead Democratic Committee Chairman Gerard Terry announced his election to the bench, the candidate said he felt a combination of agony and ecstasy.
“I was so sick that night,” said Siller, 52. “Gerard announced that Erica [Prager] and David [Goodsell] had been re-elected, and then he kind of waited a minute to announce me. I was standing up there on stage with them thinking, ‘Well, is he going to call my name?’ And then he looks at me and announces that I had been elected. It was great, it really was.”
Siller will attend the New York State Judicial Institute in January and will soon after be sworn in to serve a district court that he said presents a judge with “the biggest potpourri of stuff, from small claims to criminal arraignments to, you know, even murder.”
The Manhasset resident will also have to end his working relationship with the Great Neck firm Mirkin & Gordon, P.C. and the Queens Family Court’s 18B/Law Guardian Panel, close his own private practice and resign as a trustee in the Village of Flower Hill, a role he has served for the last two years.
“I’m so lucky to get this shot,” Siller said. “Now the reality is settling in.”
Siller learned of his nomination for District Court judge in July while on vacation in Europe, after former Town of North Hempstead Supervisor John Kaiman turned down bids to run for re-election and a seat on the district court bench and instead become Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s storm recovery czar for Long Island.
Siller immediately flew back to New York to file paperwork that put him on the Democratic, Independence and Working Families lines in the election.
“I’ve been so excited throughout all this that I’ve had trouble sleeping,” Siller said. “I’d see people get admitted to the bar and then to the bench and you’d be so excited for them, and it would plant the dream in your own mind that, maybe someday I’d be there too, you know?”
Siller earned his bachelor’s degree in art history from New York University in 1983 and later his master’s degree in humanities from Hofstra, as part of the school’s antique appraisal program.
“I always thought I’d be an art dealer,” Siller said. “I’ve always enjoyed buying and collecting art and antiques, buying instruments. I had a very good eye and learned a lot. I’ve always liked the idea that you can hold history in your hands.”
But Siller soon found himself with a master’s degree but no career direction, driving a cab around Long Island to make end’s meet.
Eventually, Siller realized most of the people he drove around were lawyers and decided to study for the Law School Admission Test. He was accepted to New York Law School by way of its early admission process and was admitted to the New York State Bar Association in 1988.
“After I was accepted to the bar, I’d see people in court and say, ‘Hey, I remember you from my cab,’” Siller said.
In 1989, Siller went to work for Mirkin & Gordon, where he represented unions for eight years. He then opened his own private practice in Greenvale, Siller & Levinson, and in 2009 began serving Queens Family Court’s 18B/Law Guardian Panel.
“I’m just so happy that I have the chance to serve the people,” Siller said. “When you go to court you want to be treated with fairness and respect by the judge. That’s what I’m all about and what I’ve always been about, and I’m grateful that the people have recognized me for that. If a judge doesn’t have that, he shouldn’t be sitting.”
