Judicial Section

Hon. Tanya R. Kennedy

NYSBA Judicial Section Presiding Member for the 2024-2025 term, Hon. Tanya R. Kennedy, is an Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, appointed to the court in July 2020. Her eighteen-year career as a jurist commenced in January 2006, serving in the Criminal Court, Civil Court (including service as Supervising Judge in New York County), Family Court, and Supreme Court. Justice Kennedy’s commitment to legal education is evident in her tenure as a former Adjunct Professor at Fordham University School of Law, where she taught a Juvenile Justice seminar for ten years and participated in various continuing legal education panels, which is ongoing.

Justice Kennedy’s service extends beyond the courtroom, including her past membership on the Board of Directors of the New York City Bar Association, past chair of the organization’s Special Committee to Encourage Judicial Service, a past Executive Committee member of NYSBA’s Women in Law Section and a former member of the Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions of the Association of Supreme Court Justices of the State of New York. She is also co-chair of the Appellate Division, First Department Wellness Committee, a member of the Board of Overseers of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she received her law degree, a life member of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association (MBBA) and former MBBA board member, and a past Advisory Board Member of Penn State Law.

As a former President of the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ), Justice Kennedy organized a Legislative Caucus on Capitol Hill focusing on ensuring a healthy work environment free of sexual harassment and led NAWJ in trademarking “#WETOO IN THE LEGAL WORKPLACE, which NAWJ continues to use.

Justice Kennedy is a sought-after speaker at various conferences and the recipient of various professional achievement awards, including the 2024 Professor William Hamilton Leadership Award from the University of Florida 11th Annual E-Discovery Conference; the 2023 MBBA Jurist of the Year Award; the 2022 Award of Recognition from the New York Women’s Bar Association; the 2022 Champion for Justice Award from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center for Elder Justice; the 2021 Distinguished Alumna Award from Penn State University; the 2021 NYSBA John E. Higgins, Esq. Diversity Trailblazer Award; the 2020 Inspiration Award from the NY Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law; the 2018 Brooklyn Technical High School Hall of Fame Designation; the 2017 Diversity Leadership Award from Penn State Law; and the 2015 Alumni of the Year Award from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.