Judge Robert G. Main Retires

Franklin County Judge Robert G. Main, Jr. will retire on December 31, 2021, following a judicial career spanning thirty-four years. He is the longest serving state court judge in the Fourth Judicial District and the senior Surrogate in New York State. Prior to assuming the bench in 1988, he served as a practicing attorney in Malone for over a decade.

Elected as Franklin County Judge in 1987, Judge Main served as Surrogate and Family Court Judge as well. Upon the election of a separate Family Court Judge, he continued to sit in Family Court. In 1997 he began to sit regularly in Supreme Court and was later designated as a full time Acting Justice of the Supreme Court. In addition to his regular assignments, he currently presides over the Adult Treatment Part of Supreme Court and the Integrated Domestic Violence Part.

The state constitution requires that most state trial court judges retire when they reach the age of seventy years. He will be succeeded by current Franklin County District Attorney Craig P. Carriero who was elected in this fall's general election.

Main has spent his entire life in Malone, attending local schools and being graduated from Franklin Academy in 1969. He was the salutatorian of his graduating class. He received his A.B. degree in political science from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, in 1973. Following the completion of his undergraduate degree, Judge Main attended Albany Law School of Union University where he was awarded a Juris Doctor degree in 1976. The following year he was admitted to the bar in New York State and for the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York.

Following a long family tradition, he is a fifth generation attorney, following all but one of his paternal forefathers in six generations in the practice of law. His grandfather and great-grandfather served as Franklin County District Attorneys, and his father served in the New York State Assembly and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court's Appellate Division for many years. Following his admission to the bar in 1977, Judge Main practiced general civil law in Malone.

Judge Main left private practice after he was elected Franklin County Judge in 1987. He was re-elected to the bench in 1997, 2007 and 2017. He also serves as Surrogate, Acting Family Court Judge, and Acting Supreme Court Justice. Judge Main founded both the Adult Treatment Court and the Family Treatment Courts in Franklin County. He also presides over the Integrated Domestic Violence part of Supreme Court. He is the senior trial judge in the Fourth Judicial District and the longest tenured Surrogate in the state.

In 2019 New York State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Janet DiFiore appointed

Judge Main as Co-Chair of the Tribal Court Committee serving the New York Federal-State-Tribal Courts and Indian Nations Justice Forum. As a member of the Forum, he spearheaded a local pre-trial supervision initiative which attracted national attention.

He is a member and past secretary of the Franklin County Bar Association and a past member of the New York State Bar Association. He is also a member of the Malone Lodge of Elks and the Franklin County Museum and Historical Society. During the 1980s Judge Main was a member of the adjunct faculty of North Country Community College where he taught business law.

Judge Main will continue to reside in Malone in retirement although he hopes to travel more frequently, spend time at his sister's home in Florida, and involve himself in the community organizations he has been associated with over the years.