By Daniel Wiessner

ALBANY, N.Y.(Reuters) - The New York State Commission on Judicial Nomination has nominated seven people, including four Appellate Division justices, to fill the Court of Appeals seat vacated by the death of Judge Theodore Jones.

The nominees, announced Thursday, are Appellate Division, First Department Justices Sheila Abdus-Salaam and Dianne Renwick; Second Department Justice John Levanthal; Fourth Department Justice Eugene Fahey; David Schulz of Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz; Maria Vullo of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; and Rowan Wilson of Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Jones, the fourth black judge in the court's history, died of a heart attack on Nov. 6. Governor Andrew Cuomo must select his replacement from the commission's list between March 22 and April 6. The state Senate will then have 30 days to confirm or reject the candidate.

Last month, the state Senate confirmed CUNY Law Professor Jenny Rivera to the court. Rivera, who replaced former Court of Appeal's Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, was Cuomo's first appointment.

Abdus-Salaam, Fahey and Schulz were also nominated for Ciparick's seat.

Rivera's confirmation came amid criticism from some Republican lawmakers who accused Cuomo and other governors of attempting to socially engineer appellate courts by appointing people based on ethnicity and gender.

With the list released on Thursday, Cuomo has several chances to make history. If chosen and confirmed, Abdus-Salaam or Renwick would be the first black woman to sit on the Court of Appeals. Schulz would be the court's first openly gay judge.

According to the commission, 71 people applied for Jones' seat, and the panel interviewed 37 candidates.

"That so many highly qualified candidates were interested in the current vacancy amply demonstrates the remarkable strength and depth of New York's legal community," former Chief Judge Judith Kaye, the chair of the commission, said in a statement.

CANDIDATES

Abdus-Salaam, 60, was appointed to the First Department in 2009, after sitting in Manhattan Supreme Court for 15 years. She was previously an attorney with East Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation, the New York City Law Department and the city's Office of Labor Services.

Renwick, 52, was first elected to State Supreme Court in 2002, and appointed to the First Department in 2008. She previously worked for the Legal Aid Society and was a federal defender in the Eastern District of New York.

Levanthal, 64, was appointed to the Second Department in 2008. As a Supreme Court justice in Brooklyn from 1996 to 2008, he presided over the first felony Domestic Violence Court in the country. Prior to becoming a judge, Levanthal was an appellate attorney in private practice.

Fahey, 61, was appointed to the Fourth Department in 2006. Before that, he sat in Erie County Supreme Court and Buffalo City Court.

Schulz, 60, is a founding partner of Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, which was formed in 2003. He is an adjunct professor at Yale Law School and Columbia Law School, and a frequent author and lecturer on topics related to the press and the First Amendment.

Vullo, 49, has been with Paul Weiss since 1988, where she is a partner in the firm's litigation department. For most of 2010, she served as a deputy attorney general for economic justice under Cuomo.

Wilson, 52, joined Cravath in 1986, and became a partner in the litigation department in 1992. From 1984 to 1986, he clerked for former Ninth Circuit Chief Judge James Browning.

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