Barbara Jaffe

Judge Barbara Jaffe, retired from the New York State Supreme Court, New York County, is now Of Counsel to the law firm of Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler, Nahins & Goidel, PC, where she focuses on commercial cases brought in the New York State Supreme and federal courts.

Syracuse University awarded Jaffe a BA, cum laude, and then a graduate fellowship to study Italian Renaissance Art in Florence, Italy, obtaining thereafter an MA in Italian Renaissance Art. After her association with an antiques business in Manhattan, she obtained her JD from Brooklyn Law School, following which she represented indigent criminal defendants on appeal for The Legal Aid Society. After serving successively as principal law clerk to two New York County Supreme Court justices, Judge Jaffe was elected to the New York City Civil Court and then appointed to the New York State Supreme Court, Civil Term, where she most recently presided in an individual assignment part, specially assigned to try asbestos cases.

 Judge Jaffe presently serves as a Director of the Center for Art Law, on the Advisory Board of the Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert, and on the Supreme Court Committee of New York County Lawyers Association. She has served in leadership capacities and otherwise on many local and state bar associations and has presented numerous continuing legal education programs on a wide variety of legal topics. 

Selected articles and presentations:

Analysis, “Two CPLR Devices Worth Remembering,” with Katryna L. Kristoferson and David Paul Horowitz, January 17, 2024, https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2024/01/17/two-cplr-devices-worth-remembering/

Analysis, “Cross-Motions: Being Offensive Can Be Effective- A Primer on CPLR 2215,” with Katryna L. Kristoferson and David Paul Horowitz, and Brian Graifman, September 25, 2023, https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2023/09/25/cross-motions-being-offensive-can-be-effective-a-primer-on-cplr-22155/

“A Terrible Punishment: 'The Justice of Cambyses' and Its Aesthetic, Religious, Mythological, Musical, and Legal Significance,” illustrated lecture at the Columbus Citizens Foundation, May 22, 2023 

“Gerard David’s ‘The Justice of Cambyses,’ The Aesthetic, Religious, Mythological, Musical, and Legal Significance of the Flaying of Sisamnes,” 26 Green Bag 2d 25 (Autumn 2022)

“After the Plague: A Eucharistic Illusion in an Early Renaissance Last Supper,” Columbus Citizens Foundation, illustrated lecture on Zoom, Sept. 17, 2020 https://youtu.be/b6p46dyxhhk

“The Artist’s Resale Right,” Artists Space Books & Talks, July 22, 2015 (see Tiernan Morgan, “Finally, a Forum on Resale Royalties Brings Artists into the Conversation,” Hyperallergic, July 23, 2015, Finally, a Forum on Resale Royalties Brings Artists into the Conversation (hyperallergic.com); Rachel Corbett, “Artists Add Their Voices to US Resale Royalties Debate,” The Art Newspaper, July 23, 2015

“Visions of ‘Justice,’ Reviewing ‘Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms’”, by Judith Resnik and Dennis Curtis, 15 Green Bag 2d 209 (Winter 2012), www.greenbag.org/v15n2/v15n2_review_jaffe.pdf

“Art Law: The Guide for Collectors, Investors, Dealers, & Artists” (Bresler and Lerner, 4th ed.) New York Law Journal, Dec. 10, 2012, at 6 (book review)

“What’s a Renoir Authenticity Case Doing in a Small Claims Court Like This?” Cultural Heritage and Arts Review (vol. 2, issue 1, Summer 2011)

“The Art of Execution: Pictures and Punishment in Western Culture: The Aesthetic Image of Public Execution and its Impact on Criminal Justice: William Hogarth and the Law Relating to Capital Punishment in Eighteenth Century England,” 15 Law and Literature 2 (Summer 2003)

“Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America,” New York Law Journal, March 14, 2000, at 2 (book review)