Breaking Barriers and Building Careers: How to Thrive in the Legal Profession 

DATE
Thursday, November 20, 2025

TIME
5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

LOCATION
Auditorium
New York Law School
185 West Broadway,
New York, NY 10013

RSVP TO THIS EVENT TODAY.

Join us for a panel discussion highlighting the professional trajectory of a judge and the challenges they may face while on the bench. Attendees will get a chance to hear, from a judge’s perspective, the best legal practices for serving diverse litigants and communities.

This event was jointly organized by the New York Women Judges Association and the NYLS student organizations Womxn of Color Collective (WOCC), the Latin American Law Students Association (LALSA), the Black Law Students Association (BLSA), the Caribbean Law Students Association (CLSA), and the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA).

PANELISTS
Hon. Lillian Wan is an Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, Second Department, appointed in 2022 as the first Asian American woman to serve on a New York Appellate Division court. In 2021, she became the first Asian American elected to the Supreme Court in Brooklyn. Previously, she served in Family Court, the Court of Claims, and the Supreme Court, Kings County. Before joining the bench in 2012, she was a Court Attorney-Referee and trial attorney at ACS. Justice Wan also holds leadership roles with the Asian American Judges Association, Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association, and NYS judicial committees.

Hon. Abena Darkeh serves as presiding justice of Kings County Supreme Court’s Domestic Violence Part One. Judge Darkeh is a former Deputy Commissioner for the New York State Division of Human Rights, assistant deputy counsel to the Chief of Policy and Planning for the New York State Courts, and court attorney/Domestic Violence Coordinator for the New York City Criminal Court. She began her career in public service as a prosecutor in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office. Judge Darkeh serves on the board of directors of Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert and is a member of several bar associations.

Hon. Patria Frias-Colón, elected in 2022, serves as Justice of the Supreme Court, Civil Term of Kings County, in the Medical Malpractice Part. She previously was Supervising Judge of Queens Civil Court and served in Kings Civil and New York Family Courts. A leader in court reform, she co-chairs the Court Modernization Action Committee and sits on the Advisory Committee on Artificial Intelligence and the Courts. A proud Afro-Dominicana, Justice Frias-Colón began her career at the Kings County DA’s Office and has held leadership roles at the NYC Law Department and Department of Education.

Hon. Deepa Ambekar serves as an Acting Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Kings County—Criminal Term. Appointed to the bench in 2018 by Mayor Bill de Blasio, she became the first South Asian judge to preside in Brooklyn and was elevated to her current role in 2024. A graduate of Rutgers Law School–Newark, she began her career in the private sector at O’Melveny & Myers, later served as a public defender with the Legal Aid Society, and was Counsel to the New York City Council’s Committee on Public Safety.

Judge Rhonda Z. Tomlinson (Moderator) is a New York Women Judges Association (NYWJA) Law School Outreach Committee member, assisting the next generation of lawyers and judges. Judge Tomlinson earned her Bachelor of Science at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University and her Juris Doctor at Hofstra University School of Law. She was appointed to the New York State Court of Claims in June 2021 and sits in Kings County Supreme Court. Judge Tomlinson taught legal courses and multiculturalism at CUNY School of Law, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and St. John’s University.