At a gathering of members of the Sullivan County legal profession, along with politicians, business people and assorted movers and shakers, Stephan Schick, who served as the executive director of Sullivan County Legal Aid and was a legals aid attorney for nearly 30 years, was sworn in as a New York State Supreme Court Justice for the Third Judicial District, which serves Sullivan County as well as Ulster, Green, Albany, Schoharie, Rensselaer and Columbia.

Schick was praised by several people including former District Attorney Stephen Lungen, who, in his nearly 30-year career as the county’s top prosecutor, very frequently was an opponent when Schick was in the courtroom defending a suspect who could not afford an attorney. Lungen praised Schick as a committed attorney who gave his clients vigorous and professional representation even when those clients did not appreciate it.

At the ceremony in Monticello on December 28, Schick accepted the judgeship in honor of all of the legal aid professionals working in Sullivan and beyond, knowing that they are often not appreciated by society. He also got a laugh at the expense of his former judicial sparring partner, Lungen.

[video:http://youtu.be/TLo2hDiSWlY]

There will be a longer article about this event in The River Reporter newspaper later this week.