Leslie Crocker Snyder

Leslie Crocker Snyder has spent 31 years in public service as a prosecutor and a judge and was the first woman to try felony and homicide cases as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney's office. During her nine years in the office, she founded and led the Sex Crimes Prosecution Bureau, the first in the nation and a model throughout the country, rewrote the rape laws and co-authored New York State's Rape Shield Law. She was previously a partner at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP, and in 2005 she was a candidate for Manhattan District Attorney. After leaving the New York County District Attorney's Office, Leslie Crocker Snyder was named the Chief of Trials at the Office of the Special Prosecutor against Corruption. She re-entered the public sector after three years as a defense attorney and became Deputy Criminal Justice Coordinator and Head of the Arson Strike Force at the Office of the New York City Criminal Justice Coordinator. Soon after, she was appointed as a Judge of the Criminal Court of the City of New York in 1983. She was first appointed by Mayor Koch to the New York State Supreme Court, Criminal Term. In June of 2000, Judge Snyder was appointed to the Court of Claims. A graduate of Case-Western-Reserve Law School (J.D., with honors, 1966) Snyder received an A.B. from Radcliffe College (1962), and holds a Certificate from the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration (1963).