It was announced today that acting Justice Marcy Friedman of the New York Supreme Court has been appointed to the Commercial Division. She succeeds Justice Bernard Fried, who announced in February of 2012 that he would step down from the bench effective July of 2012. Judge Fried had served on the Commercial Division bench since 2004. Justice Friedman, according to her biography, is a University of Pennsylvania law school graduate who began her career at a large corporate law firm, then worked with the Legal Aid Society civil division and MFY Legal Services before being appointed to the New York City Civil Court system (housing court) in 1991. She was elected to the Civil Court in 1994 and re-elected in 2004, but has been sitting by designation in the New York State Supreme Court since 2000.

Justice Friedman joins Justices Bransten, Kapnick, Kornreich, Marks, Oing, Ramos, Schweitzer, and Sherwood on the Commercial Division bench. An article in the New York Law Journal additionally notes that Justices Bransten and Ramos have reached the mandatory retirement age of 70, but both are seeking dispensation from the Office of Court Administration to serve at least two more years in the Commercial Division beginning in 2013.