Rolando Acosta is the presiding justice of the New York

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Judicial Department The Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, or simply the First Department, is one of the four geographical components of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, the intermediate appellate c ...

Early life and education

Rolando Acosta was born and raised in

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional) , websi ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

. When he turned 14, Acosta moved to New York City and attended

DeWitt Clinton High School , motto_translation = Without Work Nothing Is Accomplished , image = DeWitt Clinton High School front entrance IMG 7441 HLG.jpg , seal_image = File:Clinton News.JPG , seal_size = 124px , ...

. There, he learned English as a second language, eventually graduating number 4 in his class of 1000 in 1975. Acosta refused the offer of Harvard, Princeton, and most other Ivies in favor of

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He graduated

in 1979 with a degree in Political Science. As the starting pitcher for the Columbia University Lions, Acosta received every athletic prize that could be awarded to a pitcher by the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

and the Intercollegiate Baseball League during four years of varsity play. He was on the First Team, All Ivy League, three times and was Pitcher of the Year twice. He still holds Columbia's season and career wins records and was inducted to the Columbia University Athletic Hall of Fame in October 2008. After graduation Acosta considered going into professional baseball. However, under the advisement of his then girlfriend, author Vasthi Reyes-Acosta, he chose to attend

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

and graduated in 1982. Acosta was the recipient of the Medal for Excellence and the Wien Prize for Social Responsibility from Columbia University.

Legal career

Before becoming a judge, Acosta worked with the Legal Aid Society, where he was the attorney in charge of the civil trial office between 1994 and 1995, as well as the director of government and community relations. He subsequently served on the

New York City Civil Court The Civil Court of the City of New York is a civil court of the New York State Unified Court System in New York City that decides lawsuits involving claims for damages up to $25,000 and includes a small claims part (small claims court) for cases in ...

from 1997 to 2002. He was a New York Supreme Court Justice, 1st Judicial District, from 2002 to 2008 and was designated a justice for the appellate division, First Judicial Department, in 2008 by Governor

Eliot Spitzer Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the 54th governor of New York from 2007 until his resignation in 2008. Spitzer was b ...

. He was appointed a member of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct in 2010. On May 22, 2017 Governor Andrew Cuomo promoted Acosta to fill the First Department's presiding justice role.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acosta, Rolando Living people New York (state) lawyers Dominican Republic emigrants to the United States Columbia Law School alumni Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia Lions baseball players Hispanic and Latino American judges DeWitt Clinton High School alumni Year of birth missing (living people)

Early life and education

Legal career

See also

References