Clay H. Kaminsky was appointed as a Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York on July 1, 2025.  

Prior to his appointment, Judge Kaminsky served for over ten years as a trial attorney at the Federal Defenders of New York, where he represented hundreds of clients in criminal matters in the Southern District of New York. Previously, Judge Kaminsky practiced in the New York office of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where he focused on civil litigation, arbitration, and mediation of complex commercial and investor-state disputes. Near the outset of his legal career, Judge Kaminsky served as a law clerk to the Honorable Allyne R. Ross of the EDNY and the Honorable Julio M. Fuentes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. 

Judge Kaminsky received his J.D. magna cum laude from New York University School of Law, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Law & Politics and received the Jerome Lipper Prize for outstanding work in the field of international law. He received his A.B., magna cum laude with highest honors in linguistics, from Harvard College.