Vanessa Ruiz (born March 22, 1950) is a

Senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

associate judge Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some state ...

of the

District of Columbia Court of Appeals The District of Columbia Court of Appeals is the highest court of the District of Columbia, in the United States. Established in 1970, it is equivalent to a state supreme court, except that its authority is derived from the United States Cong ...

. Ruiz was born in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the ...

, and graduated from

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial ...

in 1972 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

and in 1975 from

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

with a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

. She was appointed to the Court of Appeals by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

on July 12, 1994, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 7, 1994. Prior to being appointed to the Court, Ruiz was Corporation Counsel (now called

Attorney General of the District of Columbia The Attorney General for the District of Columbia is the chief legal officer of the District of Columbia. While attorneys general previously were appointed by the mayor, District of Columbia voters approved a charter amendment in 2010 that ...

) for the District of Columbia and an attorney in private practice, primarily in the Washington, D.C., office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. Early in her career, Ruiz was one of the first women to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court, successfully representing a fair housing organization and its testers in ''Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman'', 455 U.S. 363 (1982), a seminal case setting the new standard for organizational standing in federal court. Ruiz is a past president of the National Association of Women Judges., and from 2018 to 2020 served as the President of the

International Association of Women Judges The International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) is a feminist non-profit non governmental organization founded in 1991 whose members are judges from around the world committed to equal justice for women. History The IAWJ was founded in 1991 a ...

. She is also a member of the

American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs ...

and serves on the board of trustees for the

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington D.C. with operations in Europe, South and East Asia, and the Middle East as well as the United States. Founded i ...

. Ruiz was married to Eduardo Elejalde from 1972 until 1982. She went on to marry David E. Birenbaum, a retired partner of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson and former US Ambassador to the United Nations for Management and Reform.

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* 1950 births Living people Wellesley College alumni Georgetown University Law Center alumni Lawyers from Washington, D.C. American women lawyers Hispanic and Latino American judges Judges of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Puerto Rican Roman Catholics People from San Juan, Puerto Rico District of Columbia Attorneys General People associated with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American women judges {{US-state-judge-stub

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