Legal scholars now say Judge Lippman, a staunch liberal Democrat, is leaving not only a string of important decisions, but also an altered legal profession in New York, because he used his authority to promote an ideal of lawyering as a public service.

“What he’s going to be remembered for is taking care of the poor and opening up people’s eyes to the fact there are hundreds of thousands of cases out there and too many instances in which people don’t have lawyers,” said Albert M. Rosenblatt, a former Court of Appeals judge who has written about the history of the court.

Though Judge Lippman came into office during a budget crisis, he still devoted more resources to civil legal services than any chief judge before him — providing $85 million in his most recent budget of $2 billion.

He goaded private lawyers and law students to do more pro bono work. He required law students, for instance, to perform 50 hours of free legal services before being admitted to the bar, and said lawyers must report every two years on how much charity work they had done. He also offered law students scholarships and a chance to take the bar exam early if they were willing to work free for the indigent.

In Albany, he fought to reform the bail laws so state judges would have broader discretion to release people who posed no danger to the community. He pushed to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 18, from 16, so youths would not be imprisoned with adult criminals.

Judge Lippman lobbied to give judges more control over sentencing and to make grand jury proceedings less secretive in high-profile cases, such as killings by the police. He urged passage of laws intended to reduce wrongful convictions, such as requiring videotaping of interrogations and better police lineup procedures.

Image Janet DiFiore, the Westchester County district attorney, has been nominated by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to succeed Judge Lippman. Credit... Mike Groll/Associated Press

Lawmakers rejected those ideas, but he had some victories. In 2012, for instance, he won passage of a law intended to combat wrongful convictions by giving convicts greater access to DNA testing. And in 2010, he broke a decade-long legislative logjam, persuading lawmakers to establish a permanent commission to set judicial salaries.