Judith S. Kaye joined Skadden’s Litigation Group in 2009. Before joining the firm, Ms. Kaye served as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals for 15 years until her retirement in 2008, longer than any other Chief Judge in New York’s history. She first was appointed in 1983 by Gov. Mario Cuomo as an associate judge of the Court of Appeals, becoming the first woman ever to serve on New York’s highest court.

Ms. Kaye gained a national reputation for both her groundbreaking decisions and her innovative reforms of the New York court system. She wrote notable decisions on adoption rights for gay couples and the death penalty. Ms. Kaye also left her mark on New York’s courts as a creative reformer, changing the jury system to eliminate exemptions and establishing community courts to handle nonviolent crimes such as graffiti, shoplifting and vandalism and provide on-site services for drug treatment, mental health counseling and job training. In addition, she created the Adoption Now program that has produced faster adoptions and more streamlined procedures for children in foster care and their families. Her reforms have been implemented by many other state courts. Before her appointment to the bench, she worked at Sullivan & Cromwell and Olwine, Connelly, Chase, O’Donnell & Weyher, where she became that firm’s first female partner.

Ms. Kaye is the author of numerous publications, including articles on legal process, state constitutional law, women in law, professional ethics and problem-solving courts. Among others, her recent publications include “A Farewell from the Chief Judge,” The Jurist, Fall/Winter 2008-2009; “Rewriting History: The Trial of Susan B. Anthony,” New York State Bar Association Journal, October 2008; “The Progress of Women Lawyers at Big Firms: Steaded or Simply Studied?” Fordham Law Review, March 2008; and “Seizing the Opportunity to Make Good on Our Promises to At-Risk Youth,” Family Court Review, July 2007.

She also has received numerous awards recognizing her judicial and scholarly accomplishments, such as the ABA Justice Center John Marshall Award, the National Center for State Courts’ William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence, the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Adoption Excellence Award.