Laura Taylor Swain (born November 21, 1958) is the Chief United States district judge of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New ...

Education and career

Born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, Swain earned an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1979 from Radcliffe College. She earned a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1982. From 1982 until 1983, Swain worked as a law clerk for Judge

Constance Baker Motley Constance Baker Motley (September 14, 1921 – September 28, 2005) was an American jurist and politician, who served as a Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. A key strategist of the civil rights mov ...

of the

. From 1983 until 1996, Swain worked in private legal practice in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, practicing as an associate, and then counsel, in the areas of

ERISA The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) (, codified in part at ) is a U.S. federal tax and labor law that establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry. It contains rules on the federal income tax eff ...

, employee benefits, executive compensation and employee law for the firm

Debevoise & Plimpton Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (often shortened to Debevoise) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1931 by Harvard Law School alumnus Eli Whitney Debevoise and Oxford-trained William Stevenson, the firm was origi ...

. Swain also served as a member of the New York State Board of Law Examiners from 1986 to 1996. She chaired the advisory committee for the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure from 2007 to 2010. She teaches as an adjunct professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City."About YU
on the Yeshiva Universi ...

Federal judicial service

On November 1, 1996, Swain became a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of New York. She served in that role until on April 25, 2000, President Clinton nominated Swain to be a United States District Judge of the

to the seat vacated by Judge Thomas P. Griesa. She was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on June 16, 2000, and received her commission on July 11, 2000. She became Chief Judge on April 10, 2021, after

Colleen McMahon Colleen McMahon (born July 18, 1951) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Education and career Born in Columbus, Ohio, McMahon received a Bachelor of Arts degree f ...

took

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

Puerto Rico debt crisis

On May 5, 2017, Chief Justice

John Roberts John Glover Roberts Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. Roberts has authored the majority opinion in several landmark cases, including '' Nat ...

appointed Judge Swain to oversee the debt restructuring case in the

Puerto Rican government-debt crisis The Puerto Rican government-debt crisis was a financial crisis affecting the government of Puerto Rico. The crisis began in 2014 when three major credit agencies downgraded several bond issues by Puerto Rico to "junk status" after the governmen ...

Copyright and authorship cases

Swain's tenure on the District Court bench has included some of the Southern District of New York's high-profile book authorship disputes. In particular, she presided over ''Lapine v. Seinfeld'' and ''Hoover v. Boncompangi''. Both cases were widely covered by the press, and were rich fodder for New York's tabloid newspapers.

''Lapine v. Seinfeld''

This action was filed by author Missy Chase Lapine against comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his wife,

Jessica Seinfeld Jessica Seinfeld (; , born Nina Danielle Sklar; September 12, 1971) is an American author. She has released five cookbooks about preparing food for families, and is the founder of the GOOD+ Foundation (formerly Baby Buggy), a New York City-based ...

, asserting that the couple used ideas for Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook ''Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food'' from Lapine's book ''The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals''. The Seinfelds denied Lapine's claim. Lapine claimed she experienced substantial financial loss. As a result of comments made by Mr. Seinfeld about the authorship dispute on the '' Late Show with David Letterman'', Lapine included a cause of action for defamation to her suit.

''Hoover v. Boncompagni''

This action was filed by Tatiana Boncompagni Hoover against her older sister Natasha Boncompagni. Hoover, a New York socialite, professional author, and wife of an heir to the Hoover cleaning founder, accused her sister of making unauthorized electronic copies of her book ''Hedge Fund Wives''. The court granted an emergency temporary restraining order preventing the older sister from further distribution of the pre-publication manuscript. The case reached closure in early 2009 when Swain entered a consent order stating, "The Defendant has announced to the Court that she is not a co-author of ''Hedge Fund Wives'' and has no authorship or co-authorship rights to the work. The Defendant agrees to release any registered or pending copyrights that she has relating to ''Hedge Fund Wives'', and any domain names or other property relating to ''Hedge Fund Wives'' or the Plaintiff’s first novel, ''Gilding Lily''."

Defamation case

On February 19, 2021, Swain dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by

Devin Nunes Devin Gerald Nunes (; born October 1, 1973) is an American businessman and politician who is chief executive officer of the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). Before resigning from the House of Representatives and joining TMTG, Nunes was ...

against CNN. Nunes sought $435 million in damages and claimed that on November 22, 2019, CNN published a false news article and engaged in a conspiracy theory to damage his reputation. Swain noted that under California law, a retraction must be demanded in writing within 20 days of publication, which Nunes failed to request.https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Judge-rejects-Rep-Devin-Nunes-defamation-suit-15965052.php ''SF Gate.'' February 19, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Swain, Laura Taylor 1958 births Living people Radcliffe College alumni Harvard Law School alumni African-American judges Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton People from Brooklyn Judges of the United States bankruptcy courts 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American women judges