Patrick Woods, JD

Woods was Assistant Solicitor General in the Albany office of the Appeals and Opinions Bureau of the Office of the New York State Attorney General. He primarily briefed and argued appeals on behalf of the State of New York in the New York Court of Appeals, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Third and Fourth Departments of the Appellate Division.

Before joining the Attorney General’s office, he was the 2015-2016 Supreme Court Fellow placed with the United States Sentencing Commission. During his fellowship, Woods worked with Commission policy teams to evaluate and recommend amendments to the United States Sentencing Guidelines. That year he also researched and published a law review article evaluating a new measure for determining when federal offenders should receive enhanced punishment that was eventually included in the 2018 FIRST STEP Act. Prior to the Supreme Court Fellowship, Woods Clerked for the Honorable Peter W. Hall of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Richard K. Eaton ‘74, of the United States Court of International Trade.

While at Albany Law School as a student, Woods was valedictorian of his graduating class, Editor-in-Chief of the Albany Law Review, a Teaching Fellow for Federal Civil Procedure, an Executive Board Member of the moot court program, and interned for the Albany County District Attorney’s Office, New York State Supreme Court, and the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. Woods’ undergraduate degree is in Philosophy. Before law school, he worked as a paralegal for a law firm specialising in customs and international trade law.

Woods has published on a variety of legal topics, as well as in a peer-reviewed philosophy journal, and his work has been cited in treatises such as New York Jurisprudence, 2d.