UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Honorable Tanya R. Kennedy, a Penn State alumna who is a New York Supreme Court justice and former supervising judge of Civil Court in New York County, will deliver the 2019 commencement address for Penn State Law on Saturday, May 11, at University Park.
NY Supreme Court justice to deliver 2019 Penn State Law commencement address
After her election to Civil Court in 2005, Kennedy presided in the Criminal and Civil Courts of the City of New York as well as the Family and Supreme Courts of the State of New York.
Born in the Bronx, New York, Kennedy received her undergraduate degree from Penn State and her law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Kennedy began her legal career at the New York City Law Department, Office of the Corporation Counsel, where she worked in both the Bronx Family Court and Bronx Tort Divisions and was promoted to deputy assistant chief while assigned to the Tort Division. Prior to joining the judiciary, Kennedy served as principal law clerk to former Associate Justice Barry A. Cozier in the Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department.
Kennedy is the immediate past president of the National Association of Women Judges. As a demonstration of her commitment to increasing the pipeline of minority students to the legal profession, Kennedy hosts summer interns from the Sonia & Celina Sotomayor Judicial Internship Program and from the Law and Society Major Internship Program of the Brooklyn Technical High School, her alma mater.
In August 2017, she was appointed chair of the New York City Bar Special Committee to Encourage Judicial Service. She also serves as an advisory board member of Penn State Law at University Park.
Her numerous honors include 2018 induction in the Brooklyn Technical High School Alumni Hall of Fame; the 2017 Diversity Leadership Award from Penn State Law; the 2015 Alumni of the Year Award from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; the 2014 award from the New York County Lawyers’ Association Civil Court Practice Section; and the 2014 NAACP Mid-Manhattan Branch Outstanding Community Service Award.
Penn State Law’s 2019 commencement ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. May 11 in Eisenhower Auditorium on Penn State’s University Park campus. Tickets are not required for the 90-minute ceremony.
For more information on Penn State Law's 2019 commencement, visit pennstatelaw.psu.edu/commencement2019.