After nearly 40 years as the executive director of the New York State Defenders Association, Jonathan Gradess will retire in August. During his tenure, he has seen the organization grow to 1,850 members and expand to serve the needs of more than 6,000 public defense attorneys in more than 120 programs in 62 counties.
Gradess graduated from Hofstra University School of Law’s charter class in 1973 and has worked as a criminal defense lawyer, a private investigator and a law school professor. He took the helm at the NYSDA when the organization was just over a decade old. In addition to fielding daily calls from public defenders, the group has been working closely with the state Office of Indigent Legal Services to improve public criminal defense services as required by the state’s 2014 settlement in Hurrell-Harring v. State of New York and by new provisions in the 2017-18 state budget, which sets the stage for state assumption of a larger portion of localities’ indigent defense funding (NYLJ, April 10).
