Zainab A. Chaudhry was nominated to the New York State Court of Claims  by Governor Kathy Hochul and was confirmed by the New York State Senate  on June 3, 2022. Judge Chaudhry is the first Muslim ever appointed to the  New York Court of Claims, and is among the first three judges of South Asian  descent appointed to that court, all of whom were appointed in 2022. 

Born in Albany, New York, to Dr. Mussarat Chaudhry and the late Dr.  Muhammad Ashraf Chaudhry, immigrants from Pakistan, Judge Chaudhry  has spent nearly her entire life in New York’s Capital Region. She attended  Niskayuna High School, Union College, and Albany Law School, where she  graduated as valedictorian in 1998. 

Judge Chaudhry commenced her long career in public service as a law clerk  at the New York State Court of Appeals, first on the Court’s Central Legal  Research Staff, and thereafter in the chambers of then-Associate Judge, the Hon. Richard C. Wesley. Judge Chaudhry later served as an Assistant  Solicitor General in the Appeals Bureau of the Office of the New York State  Attorney General from 2007 to 2019. In that capacity, she briefed and  argued numerous cases before the New York State Court of Appeals, the  United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and all four  departments of the Appellate Division, and filed several amicus briefs in the  Supreme Court of the United States. For the three years immediately  preceding her appointment to the bench, Judge Chaudhry had returned to  the New York State Court of Appeals to serve as Principal Court Attorney  with the leadership team training and supervising new staff law clerks.  

Before her appointment, Judge Chaudhry served for many years on the  Committee on Character and Fitness in the Third Judicial Department. As  an appellate litigator, she also frequently participated in numerous  continuing legal education programs, including presenting on state  administrative practice, religious freedom in prison, and effective legal  writing and appellate advocacy. In addition, throughout her legal career,  Judge Chaudhry has been committed to mentoring law students and young  attorneys, particularly those from underrepresented communities, through  mentorship programs at Albany Law School, the Franklin H. Williams  Judicial Commission, the Muslim Bar Association of New York, the South  Asian Bar Association of New York, and the Asian American Bar Association  of New York; she has also participated in numerous judicial pathways  programs with these and other organizations. 

In 2023, Judge Chaudhry received the Trailblazer Award from the Muslim  Bar Association of New York. In 2024, Judge Chaudhry was appointed as a  member of the New York team for the National Courts and Sciences Institute  Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Strategic Initiative, as well as the  New York State Court System’s newly established Advisory Committee on  Artificial Intelligence and the Courts. Judge Chaudhry is a member of the  Board of the Asian American Judges Association of New York and serves on  the Court of Claims’ Equal Justice in the Courts Committee. Judge Chaudhry  was also recently appointed as co-chair of the Third Judicial District’s Equal  Justice in the Courts Committee.

This speaker is a panelist for AABANY Trial Reenactment - Race, Color, and Citizenship: Ozawa and Thind In the 1920s.