Each new year, about 100 freshly sworn-in New York State judges get robe fittings, courthouse assignments, chambers and staff members as they prepare to take the bench.

But there is one thing these new jurists lack: judicial experience.

So the state sends them to “Judge School,” a four-day judicial boot camp offered the first week in January to make judges out of lawyers accustomed to using their legal expertise to battle for clients.

“The transition is not something you can prepare for,” said Christopher Robles, 44, one of 84 judges taking the program this week at the New York State Judicial Institute at Pace University’s Law School in White Plains, N.Y.

“You go from advocating for one side, to becoming an impartial party who now has to apply the law equally,” said Judge Robles, a former defense lawyer from Brooklyn newly assigned to Brooklyn Criminal Court.

The goal is to equip the judges with the tools to quickly take control of their courtroom, said Judge Juanita Bing Newton, the dean of the judicial institute, a full-time training and education center for judges and other employees of the New York State Unified Court System.

“Perfection is not the goal here — all judges make mistakes,” he said. “Judges get in trouble when they’re arrogant.”

The weeklong course has been offered for 30 years by the state court system, which employs 1,250 judges, and oversees another 2,400 town and village judges — who have their own training programs in Albany.

The week in White Plains is packed with presentations mostly by senior state court judges.

There are no robes or gavels, but all aspects are addressed in a broad curriculum that ranges from general ethics and courtroom conduct to narrow points of decision writing, search and seizure rules, domestic violence issues and orders of protection.

Courses included “The Black Robe,” a general introductory class on Tuesday night, and a more detailed class called “Facial Sufficiency of Accusatory Instruments,” on Thursday morning.

In his lecture on the “Art of Judging,” Michael V. Coccoma, a deputy chief administrative judge, welcomed the judges to “this new life you have assumed.”

Judge Coccoma warned against contracting “black robe disease,” in which the main symptom is delusions of loftiness.

“Oftentimes, judges get their black robes on and they think they walk on water,” he said. “They think they can do no wrong, and that everyone has to laugh at their jokes.”

“Remember,” he said. “No crown comes with that black robe.”

What does come with it, he said, is courtrooms full of people standing up when the judge enters. It means their first names would largely be replaced by “Judge,” even outside the courtroom. Mostly it means always being under scrutiny.

“Largely, your reputation as a judge will be formed by your first year on the bench,” Judge Coccoma said.

His practical advice included getting to know the layout of courthouses and meeting its employees, from court officers to maintenance workers to administrators.

Making an error in a ruling is to be expected, he said, and should be corrected quickly from the bench — “Upon further consideration,” was his recommended phrasing — to avoid reading about it in The New York Law Journal, or be reversed later on appeal.

As carried in NYT