Lecturer Bios
Miriam Hibel, Esq.,
MIRIAM J. HIBEL was the Director of Law at Brooklyn Defender Services, a
non-profit organization representing indigent defendants in Brooklyn’s criminal courts.
She was formerly a Senior Supervising Attorney at the Criminal Appeals Bureau of The
Legal Aid Society, and taught Appellate Advocacy as an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn
Law School. An authority in the area of identification law, she has argued leading
identification cases before the Court of Appeals, such as People v. Chipp, and is the
author of the comprehensive treatise, New York Identification Law (LexisNexis). Ms.
Hibel is a frequent guest speaker at training programs and criminal law symposia
throughout the state.
Hon. Marcy L. Kahn
Marcy L. Kahn is serving her second term as a Justice of the
New York State Supreme Court, the state’s general jurisdiction trial
court, and has held judicial office in the state for the past 25
years. Previously, she was a partner and associate, respectively,
at Anderson Kill & Olick, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom,
in New York City. Prior to that, was appointed a Special Assistant
Attorney General of the State of New York prosecuting corruption
in the New York City criminal justice system.
Justice Kahn has served in leadership capacities on committees
of the New York State Unified Court System and various judicial and
bar associations, and has developed and presented educational
programs for the bench and bar nationally and locally for nearly
three decades. She has served on the faculty of the National Judicial
College and has authored four law review articles, in addition to
numerous published opinions.
Justice Kahn received her A.B. from Stanford University, with
Honors, and her J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Kristine Hamann
Kristine Hamann is the Executive Assistant District Attorney for the Special
Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of the New York. The office conducts
international, national and local drug trafficking investigations and prosecutions
which impact New York City. She is in charge of legislative issues, community
projects, IT, administration and budget.
She is the chair of the Best Practices Committee for the New York State
District Attorney’s Association. The committee develops best practices and
innovative strategies aimed at preventing wrongful convictions. Statewide
identification procedures, video interrogation protocols and an Ethics
Handbook have been spearheaded by the committee.
From 2007 to 2008, Ms. Hamann was the New York State Inspector General.
From 1998 to 2007, Ms. Hamann served as the Executive Assistant District
Attorney to Robert M. Morgenthau in the Manhattan District Attorney’s
Office. Ms. Hamann held several other positions in the District Attorney’s
Office, including Deputy Chief of the Trial Division in charge of the Criminal
Court, Director of Training, and Deputy Bureau Chief of the Career Criminal
Bureau. After law school she was an associate at Simpson Thacher and
Bartlett.
Jennifer Dysart, Ph.D,
Kristine Hamann is the Executive Assistant District Attorney for the Special
Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of the New York. The office conducts
international, national and local drug trafficking investigations and prosecutions
which impact New York City. She is in charge of legislative issues, community
projects, IT, administration and budget.
She is the chair of the Best Practices Committee for the New York State
District Attorney’s Association. The committee develops best practices and
innovative strategies aimed at preventing wrongful convictions. Statewide
identification procedures, video interrogation protocols and an Ethics
Handbook have been spearheaded by the committee.
From 2007 to 2008, Ms. Hamann was the New York State Inspector General.
From 1998 to 2007, Ms. Hamann served as the Executive Assistant District
Attorney to Robert M. Morgenthau in the Manhattan District Attorney’s
Office. Ms. Hamann held several other positions in the District Attorney’s
Office, including Deputy Chief of the Trial Division in charge of the Criminal
Court, Director of Training, and Deputy Bureau Chief of the Career Criminal
Bureau. After law school she was an associate at Simpson Thacher and
Bartlett.
Hon. Jill Konviser
Honorable Jill Konviser has been a Judge of the Court of Claims and Acting Justice of the
Supreme Court since 2005. Currently she presides over cases in Supreme Court - Criminal
Term, New York County. Previously she served as New York State’s Inspector General, Senior
Assistant Counsel to the Governor, General Counsel to the MTA Inspector General and as an
Assistant District Attorney in New York County. She has been an adjunct professor at Cardozo
and Fordham Law Schools. A frequent lecturer on criminal procedure and practice and trial
advocacy, Judge Konviser received her B.A. from the State University of New York at
Binghamton, and her J. D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Hon. J. Kevin McKay
Hon. Joseph Kevin McKay serves as an Acting Justice of the Supreme Court, now sitting in
Criminal Term, Kings County. A graduate of Fordham College and NYU School of Law, Kevin
McKay began his legal career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan office of Frank S.
Hogan. He joined a Manhattan law firm as an associate and later as partner, practicing commercial
litigation, while also serving on the CJA Panel of Attorneys for the Southern District of New York.
Judge McKay was named a NYC Inspector General until his first judicial appointment to the NYC
Civil Court by Mayor Koch in 1983. There followed successive mayoral appointments to the
Criminal Court in 1984, 1993 and 2003. Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors, New
York County Lawyers’ Association, is Vice-Chair of its Justice Center and is also a member of the
House of Delegates, New York State Bar Association. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of
New York Methodist Hospital, the Advisory Boards of LIU School of Business and the Center for
Research in Crime and Justice of NYU School of Law, as well as on the Board of Directors for the
NYU Law Alumni Association.
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos is a native New Yorker, raised waiting tables in his family's
Greek restaurant in Lower Manhattan. A former middleweight boxer who joined the U.S.
Marine Corps at 19, he left active duty in 1988 to join the New York County District
Attorney's Office—where tabloids call him “pit bull" for his relentless pursuit of
criminals. Remaining in the reserves in the 1990’s, he led a counter-narcotics operation
on the Mexican border and served in Desert Storm, South Korea, Lithuania, Guyana,
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kosovo.
Losing his apartment near the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, he joined a
counter-terrorism task force in Afghanistan, where he received a Bronze Star for actions
against al-Qaeda. He then served in the Horn of Africa and three tours in Iraq—leading
the international investigation into the looting of Iraq’s National Museum—before
deploying again to Afghanistan in 2009. Exposing the link between antiquities trafficking
and terrorist financing, and presenting those findings to the United Nations, Interpol,
British Parliament, and the Peace Palace in The Hague, he received a National
Humanities Medal from President Bush for his work in helping recover more than 6000
of Iraq's treasures in eight countries.
He holds a classics degree from Bucknell University; law degree and master’s in Classics
from Columbia University; Recognition of Achievement in International Law from
Columbia’s Parker School of International Law; and master’s in Strategic Studies from
the Army War College. In addition to dozens of military awards, he received the 2004
Public Service Award from the Hellenic Lawyers of America, the 2006 Distinguished
Leadership Award from the Washington DC Historical Society, a 2007 Proclamation
from the City of New York, a 2009 Proclamation from the City of Philadelphia, was
Grand Marshal of the 2010 Greek Independence Day Parade, a 2011 Ellis Island Medal
of Honor recipient, and was included in a book covering the two dozen “great opening
and closing arguments of the last 100 years.”
Returning to the DA’s Office in October 2010, he still boxes and continues the hunt for
stolen antiquities. Published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street
Journal, and military, archaeological, legal, and international journals, all royalties from
his book, Thieves of Baghdad, are donated to the Iraq Museum
Katherine A. Lemire, Esq
Katherine A. Lemire, a former federal and local prosecutor, has extensive experience in directing investigations into corporate fraud, identity theft, money laundering, and employee misconduct. As the former Counsel to Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly (NYPD), Ms. Lemire has unique insight into all aspects of investigatory work.