Making Strides Toward Diversity

The Judicial Section of the NYSBA will be giving its Distinguished Jurist Award to Judge Betty Weinberg Ellerin and its first Advancement of Judicial Diversity Award this year to Judge Karen K. Peters. Judge Ellerin was a true trailblazer. She has accomplished many “firsts” in her life. She was the first woman appointed Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for the New York City courts; the first woman appointed as an Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department in 1985; the first woman to be appointed Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department and a founding member and director of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York. This award will be added to a long list of accomplishments and well deserved awards.

Judge Peters was the first woman elected to the Supreme Court in the Third Department in 1992. On April 5, 2012 she was the first woman appointed as the Presiding Justice of the Third Department. She has received many awards and has done much to promote diversity with the bench and bar. She was a natural choice to receive the first Advance of Judicial Diversity Award.