Director
JUDGE
SUPREME COURT
KINGS COUNTY
Born and raised in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, Judge Joanne D. Quiñones was first appointed to the bench in 2010 by the Hon. Michael R. Bloomberg, then Mayor of the City of New York. Immediately prior to her appointment, Judge Quiñones served for ten years as Principal Court Attorney to the Hon. Matthew F. Cooper in Supreme, Civil and Criminal Courts. She also previously served as a Staff Attorney with the Criminal Defense Division of The Legal Aid Society. In 2017, Judge Quiñones was designated an Acting Supreme Court Justice. She currently sits in Kings County Supreme Court, where she handles both criminal and matrimonial matters.
Judge Quiñones is an active member of numerous bar associations and legal organizations. She is the a past president of both the Latino Judges Association and the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association and remains an active member of their boards. She also serves on the boards of the National Association of Women Judges – NY Chapter (Vice President, Second Department); the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (Delegate); and the Judicial Section of the New York State Bar Association (Assistant Presiding Member). In December 2015, she was appointed by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman to the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts and currently chairs the Commission’s Judicial Mentor Program. In November 2020, she was appointed by Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks to the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics.
An advocate and beneficiary of professional and personal mentoring, Judge Quiñones has taken on scores of young people as interns and mentees, who are affectionately known as “Camp Quiñones.” She has served as a moderator and speaker on various panels, including pathways to the bench and the importance of judicial diversity, and has presented on the issue of implicit bias to several organizations including the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York, the Nathan R. Sobel Kings County Inn of Court, the New York City Civil Court Judges Association, the Columbian Lawyers Association of Kings County and the New York State Association of Disciplinary Attorneys.
Judge Quiñones’ commitment to the legal and greater community has been recognized by numerous organizations, including the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York which presented her with the Judith S. Kaye Access to Justice Award (June 2018); the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association which presented her with the Sybil Hart Kooper Award, the Association’s highest honor, (May 2013) and also with the Amy Wren Award (September 2018); the Brooklyn Bar Association which presented her with the Vivian H. Agress Trailblazer Award (December 2018); and the Puerto Rican Bar Association which presented her with the Judiciary Excellence Award (October 2019).
Judge Quiñones is a graduate of Brown University and Fordham University School of Law, where she was a Louis Stein Scholar in Public Interest Law and Ethics. She has served as a member of Fordham Law School’s Public Interest Advisory Council since its inception in 2016 and also currently serves as a member of the Fordham Law Alumni Association’s Nominating Committee.
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