New York Supreme Court Justice Robert Reed has been appointed to the Manhattan Commercial Division, where he will fill a currently open spot on the division’s bench and where his appointment appears to somewhat help ease concerns about two forthcoming retirements from the Commercial Division bench amid a statewide $300 million judicial budget cut.

In addition, on Tuesday afternoon, Lucian Chalfen, chief spokesman for the Office of Court Administration, which administers the state’s court system, said in an interview with the New York Law Journal that “hopefully, some time in the near future, we’ll be able to pull people over [from the state civil Supreme Court bench] to fill the other positions.” Those positions will open up in the Manhattan Commercial Division at the end of this year and around March of next year as sitting Commercial Division Justices Marcy Friedman and O. Peter Sherwood retire.

Robert R. Reed Robert R. Reed