Lawrence Cullen, a Court of Claims judge whose deep empathy for clients and litigants stemmed from his own experience as a 13-year-old orphan and a shell-shocked veteran of the Vietnam War, died on Nov. 25, just weeks after winning election as a Supreme Court justice. He was 64.
Colleagues described Cullen as a big-hearted, compassionate man who largely handled guardianship and conservatorship work as a practicing attorney in Queens before he joined the judiciary in 2005 with an interim appointment to Supreme Court by Governor George Pataki.
