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Peter Skeloss career has gone full circle from a private practice attorney to an associate justice of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court and back again to private practice. As a partner at Uniondale-based Forchelli, Curto, Deegan, Schwartz, Mineo & Terrana, Skelos spoke about the transition and about navigating the career change as the indictment of his brother, former N.Y. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, whose conviction was recently overturned, first made headlines. Peter Skelos also discussed how his experience on the bench enables him to mentor attorneys.
You served 21 years as a judge. At what point were you ready to move on to something else? I had no idea how long I wanted to [serve as a judge] from the outset. Over the course of time, I thought What are you going to do the rest of your life? When I was approaching the age of 60, I tried to look at [being] a judge for the rest of my life and had come to the idea that even though I loved being a judge, and could have done it [according to the rules] until I was 76, but then where was I going to be? My dad worked until he was 93. I always said I was going to be like my dad working into my 0s. Certainly God-willing at the age of 76, where am I going to be as a retired judge? Who is going to be interested in me? [I decided to] see whats out there, with the understanding not to put my feet on the table and rest...