Rachel Kretser

Judge Rachel Kretser was appointed to the Albany City Criminal Court in December 2005, and was elected to that position in 2006, becoming the first woman ever to serve on a criminal court bench in the Third Judicial District.  In 2016 she was appointed Acting County Court Judge for Domestic Violence matters.

Since her retirement from the bench in January 2017, Judge Kretser serves as an adjunct professor at Albany Law School, a Judicial Hearing Officer, mediator and arbitrator. In early 2018, she was appointed by Presiding Justice E. Garry to the 3rd Dept. Appellate Division Civil Appeals Settlement Panel where she mediates a wide variety of cases pending before the appellate court.

Judge Kretser developed an alternative dispute settlement CLE program in 2018 co-sponsored by Albany Law School, NYSBA, Albany County Bar Asso., No.Dis. Federal Court Bar Asso., NAWJ, Capital District Women’s Bar and Capital District Black and Hispanic Bar. She also published an article entitled, “Gender Equality in Dispute Resolution” that appeared in several legal journals.

Judge Kretser is a member of the Albany County Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York, the Lawyer-Pilots Bar Association and the Women Pilots Association.  She is a lifetime member of Hadassah, and is a member of the United Jewish Federation of NENY.