Biography
Matthew J. D’Emic is a graduate of Fordham University and Brooklyn Law School. He was appointed to the bench in 1996 and serves in Kings County Supreme Court. In March 2002 he was selected to preside over the first mental health court in New York State and in March 2014 he was also appointed Administrative Judge for Criminal Matters in Kings County Supreme Court.
Judge D’Emic is the past chair of the Supreme Court Gender Fairness Committee and is a member of the New York State Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts from which he received its first Leadership Award in May 2023. He also served on mental health and criminal justice task forces for Mayors Bloomberg and DeBlasio and is co-chair of Mayor Adams’ mental health task force. Judge D’Emic is also a member of the Independent Commission on New York City Justice and Incarceration Reform (Rikers Commission) and the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness of the National Center for State Courts. In 2023, Acting Chief Judge Anthony Cannataro appointed Judge D’Emic to chair a statewide committee to implement the National Task Force’s recommendations in New York State. He has been recognized for his work in domestic violence by the American Bar Association, Kings County Criminal Bar Association, Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association, Catholic Lawyers Guild and Lawyers Committee Against Domestic Violence and for is work in mental health by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and New York State Psychiatric Association among others.
Judge D’Emic was the 2023 recipient of the Hon. Stephen Goss Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of State Governments’ Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative as well as the William Brennan Award for Outstanding Jurist from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys.
Judge D’Emic has served on the boards of Xaverian High School, The Guild for Exceptional Children and Mercy Home. He has authored over a dozen articles and lectures frequently on criminal justice.
Judge D’Emic is an adjunct professor of law at Brooklyn Law School.