George B. Daniels

George Benjamin Daniels (born May 13, 1953) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Early life and education Daniels was born in Allendale, South Carolina. He graduated from Suffield Academy in 1971, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University in 1975. He received a Juris Doctor from the UC Berkeley School of Law in 1978. Career Daniels was as a criminal defense attorney for the Legal Aid Society of New York City from 1978 to 1980. Afterwards, he was a law clerk for Chief Justice Rose Bird of the California Supreme Court from 1980 to 1981. From 1981 to 1983, he was in private practice with the New York City law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Daniels served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York from 1983 to 1989. He was an adjunct professor of law at Brooklyn Law School from 1988 to 1991. In 1989, Daniels was appointed a Judge of the Criminal Court of the City of New York by Mayor Ed Koch. He stepped down from the bench in 1990 to serve as Counsel to Mayor David Dinkins, but was re-appointed a Judge of the Criminal Court by Dinkins in 1993. He was elected a justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York in 1995 and served on that until his appointment to the federal bench.