THE PUERTO RICAN BAR ASSOCIATION PROUDLY CONGRATULATES ITS PAST PRESIDENT, THE HONORABLE ELENA GOLDBERG-VELAZQUEZ, ON HER APPOINTMENT TO THE APPELLATE TERM
On February 5, 2024, Chief Administrative Judge Joseph A. Zayas announced the appointment of Hon. Elena Goldberg-Velazquez to the Appellate Term of the Supreme Court, Second Department, in the Ninth and Tenth Judicial Districts. The appointment was made with the approval of Appellate Division, Second Department Presiding Justice Hector D. LaSalle.
Justice Goldberg-Velazquez is the first Latinx Justice from the Ninth Judicial District to sit on the Court, which hears appeals from cases originating in the City and Justice Courts, and in the District Courts in Nassau and Suffolk counties. After working in private practice, she joined the court system in 2010 as a court attorney at the Appellate Division, First Department. In 2019, she was elected to Yonkers City Court, handling a range of civil and criminal matters. She was designated an acting Family Court judge, presiding over the Yonkers City Court’s Integrated Domestic Violence Part, conducting hearings, fact-findings, and trials in child custody and other cases, in addition to hearing related criminal matters. She was subsequently elected to State Supreme Court in the Ninth Judicial District’s Orange County, where she has presided over a busy calendar comprising a range of civil matters, including medical malpractice, matrimonial, personal injury, and labor law cases, among others.
Among her many professional affiliations and activities, she is a past President of the Puerto Rican Bar Association, a board member of the Latino Judges Association and serves as chair of its CLE Committee; a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Diversity Committee and the Association of Supreme Court Justices of the State of New York’s Legislative Committee; and a past co-chair of the Jewish Lawyers’ Guild’s annual gala. She also served as a mentor with the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission.
We could not be more proud of Justice Goldberg-Velazquez and wish her much success as a Justice of the Appellate Term.