Rosalyn Richter is an American lawyer who served as an associate justice of the New York
.
Early life and education
Richter is the daughter of Anita Richter and the late Nathaniel Richter. She is a 1976 graduate of
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
and a 1979 graduate of
Brooklyn Law School
Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a private law school in New York City. Founded in 1901, it has approximately 1,100 students. Brooklyn Law School's faculty includes 60 full-time faculty, 15 emeriti faculty, and a number of adjunct faculty.
Brookly ...
.
Legal career
Richter enjoyed a lengthy career in the judiciary. She was instrumental in the fight for Gay Rights publishing in 1982 the report: Anti-gay legislation: An attempt to sanction inequality?
She began serving on the
New York City Criminal Court
The Criminal Court of the City of New York is a court of the Judiciary of New York (state), State Unified Court System in New York City that handles misdemeanors (generally, criminal law, crimes punishable by fine or imprisonment of up to one yea ...
from 1990 to 1996. Richter then proceeded to serve as a
New York Supreme Court Justice
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
, from 2002 to 2009. She was designated a Justice for the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department in 2008 by
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
David Paterson
David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A ...
.
On August 3, 2018, Richter received the Dan Bradley Award, the National LGBT Bar Association's highest honor, in recognition of her pathbreaking legacy of service.
As Richter, put it, she was honored for "being so out in the late 1970s, and 1980s and for being out throughout
erjudicial career."
Justice Richter ended her lengthy judicial career by retiring in July 2020.
On October 12, 2020, Justice Richter joined Arnold & Porter's Complex Litigation practice as Senior Counsel.
Personal life
Richter married her wife,
Janet Weinberg
Janet Inez Weinberg (April 3, 1955 - September 1, 2018) was an American LGBTQ activist, advocate for people with HIV/AIDS and advocate for disability rights, based in New York City. She was a fund-raiser and executive for social service organizat ...
, in August 2011, shortly after same-sex marriage was legalized in the state of New York. Weinberg died on September 1, 2018, in the
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
.
See also
*
List of LGBT jurists in the United States
This is a list of openly LGBT Americans who are or were judges, magistrate judges, court commissioners, or administrative law judges in the United States and its federal district and territories. If known, it will be listed if a judge has served o ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richter, Rosalyn
Living people
New York (state) lawyers
Barnard College alumni
Brooklyn Law School alumni
LGBT people from New York (state)
Year of birth missing (living people)
LGBT judges
Arnold & Porter people
New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department justices