Steven I. Locke
How Judge Locke decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On a referred Rule 12(b)(6) motion he applies black-letter New York contract law strictly: post-termination sales commissions are recoverable only if the employment agreement expressly provides for them, so a complaint that omits that allegation fails to state a breach -- a recommendation upheld on de novo review over the plaintiff's objection.
“[Tal] neglects to allege that post-employment commissions were expressly provided for in the parties’ agreement, which is legally required under New York law, and thus fails to establish Defendant’s breach of contract.”
On default-judgment inquests he does not rubber-stamp the requested relief: he grants the claims the well-pleaded complaint supports and recommends DENYING the rest, fixing damages claim-by-claim (e.g. granting only the breach-of-contract claim and denying all others in Nedspice).
“I grant plaintiff’s motion as to the breach of contract claim and award plaintiff: (i) $189,393 in damages ... I deny plaintiff’s motion as to all other claims.”
Procedural preferences
He is the Long Island district judges' go-to magistrate for dispositive and default referrals: across these orders his R&Rs were referred by and adopted by Hurley, Seybert, Spatt, Ross, and Azrack. Where no party objects within 14 days, the district judge reviews only for clear error -- so an unobjected Locke R&R is, in practice, the ruling.
“Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b) and Fed. R. Civ. P. 72, this Court has reviewed the Report and Recommendation for clear error, and finding none, now concurs in both its reasoning and its result.”
Cautions
When service is defective he recommends quashing it but ordinarily gives the plaintiff a short window (here 30 days) to cure by re-serving, rather than dismissing outright -- so a 12(b)(5) loss in front of him is usually fixable.
“the Motion to Quash Service of Process pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(5) is granted as to Defendants Bruce Klein, Matthew Olugbenga Aworeni, and Honeyfield Investments Ltd.; and (3) Plaintiff shall have 30 days from the date of this Order to properly serve”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Default judgment N = 4 |
Granted: 3Granted in part: 1 | counts only |
| Motions to dismiss N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Motion to quash service N = 1 |
Granted in part: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“IT IS HEREBY ORDERED (1) the government’s motion for a default judgment be granted in its entirety; (2) a judgment be entered in favor of the Government against defendant Steven D. Silverman for unpaid Internal Revenue taxes, penalties and interest in the amount of $51, 251.88”
“the Court ADOPTS Judge Locke’s R&R (Docket Entry 24) in its entirety. Plaintiff’s motion (Docket Entry 19) is GRANTED and Plaintiff is awarded $858,172.00 in monetary damages, $14,444.50 in attorneys’ fees, and $660.00 in costs.”
“the R&R is adopted in its entirety. The Plaintiff may move for attorneys’ fees within thirty days of the date of this Order.”
“Accordingly, I grant plaintiff’s motion for default judgment in part and deny it in part. I grant plaintiff’s motion as to the breach of contract claim and award plaintiff: (i) $189,393 in damages ... I deny plaintiff’s motion as to all other claims.”
“Accordingly, Computech’s motion to dismiss is granted in its entirety, and Tal is granted leave to amend his complaint.”
“IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that (1) the Motion to Quash Service of Process pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(5) is denied as to Defendant John Tidrow; (2) the Motion to Quash Service of Process pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(5) is granted as to Defendants Bruce Klein, Matthew Olugbenga Aworeni, and Honeyfield Investments Ltd.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
E.D.N.Y. referral magistrate, Central Islip (Long Island; suffix 'SIL'). Sampled currently-assigned dockets (all filed 2026, pending) show a Long Island civil mix: employment/civil-rights (442 Lee v. Northwell Health; 440 E.K. v. Golden), FLSA labor (710 Deras v. Consolidated Aircraft Supply), out-of-network medical-provider reimbursement / ERISA-adjacent insurance disputes (190 Complete Orthopaedics v. United Healthcare; 890 Neurological Surgery Practice of L.I. v. Aetna), copyright (820 Stanfield v. AJC Design), prisoner conditions (555 Wilck v. County of Nassau), commercial/trade-secret, and general civil. Consistent with the GovInfo R&R sample, his referral diet runs heavily to default judgments, service/jurisdiction motions, and discovery supervision. Mix is qualitative this build (case-level metadata only).