Hon. Judy H. Kim, Acting Justice of the Supreme Court, New York County, was born and raised in Manhattan, New York. She is the daughter of immigrants who left South Korea and came to the United States in the mid-1960s. She attended The Spence School and then went on to receive her Bachelor of Arts degree in American History and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. She received her Juris Doctorate from Tulane School of Law where she served as Notes and Comments Editor of the Tulane Journal of International & Comparative Law. In November 2016, Justice Kim became the first Korean American elected judge in New York State. As an elected Civil Court judge, she served in the Manhattan Criminal Court for two years and then served for three years in New York County Civil Court. In January 2022, she was promoted to Acting Justice of the Supreme Court in the New York State Supreme Court, New York County. In September 2024, Justice Kim was appointed to the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics for a five-year term by the Chief Administrative Judge. She also serves on the Supreme Court, New York County-Civil Term Equal Justice in the Courts and the Gender Fairness committees.

Prior to joining the judiciary, she served as an associate counsel and interim Section Chief in the Bureau & Estates Litigation Section of the New York Liquidation Bureau’s Legal Division from 2008- 2016. She also spent several years in private practice, first at Kennedy Lillis Schmidt & English – a boutique law firm – and then at Snitow Kanfer Holtzer & Millus LLP, where she specialized in commercial litigation, employment discrimination, and matrimonial and family law matters.

Justice Kim currently serves as the immediate past president of the Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert (JALBCA) and is a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Minorities in the Courts and Diversity Pipeline Initiative committees. She also serves as a trustee of The Historical Society of New York Courts. She previously served on the executive boards of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY), the Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York (KALAGNY) and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). Justice Kim is the recipient of KALAGNY’s 2017 Trailblazer Award and The Spence School’s 2024 Judith Joseph Jenkins ’91 Distinguished Alumna Award. In 2025, she was recognized as a trailblazer in City and State New York’s inaugural Asian Trailblazer list.

Justice Kim continues to be an active member of the community. She serves as a member of the Alumnae Diversity Committee and as a Board of Trustee of The Spence School and as a board member of the Korean American Community Foundation (KACF), which provides grants and organizational development support to nonprofit groups working to address the most pressing needs in the Korean American community and beyond.