Justice Karla Moskowitz is a 1966 graduate of Columbia Law School. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Alfred University in 1963. Justice Moskowitz served as a judge since 1982 when she was elected Judge of the Civil Court of the City of New York. In 1987 she was appointed Acting Supreme Court Justice, was elected to the Supreme Court in 1991 and re-elected in 2005. During that time, she served as a trial judge in Supreme Court Civil Branch sitting in a Medical Malpractice Part from 1992 until 2001 and in the Commercial Division from 2001 until her appointment in January 2008 to the Appellate Division, First Department.
Her non-judicial, legal experience has included service in the State Attorney General’s office, in the New York City Human Resources Administration, as a Hearing Officer for the New York City Board of Education, a member of the Criminal 18-B Appeal Panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, an arbitrator for the Small Claims Division of the Civil Court, an attorney in private practice and as an Administrative Law Judge for the New York State Department of Health.
She is a Past President of the New York Women’s Bar Association, the New York State Association of Women Judges and National Association of Women Judges. She is also a Founder and Past President of the Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert. She was Co-chair of the Summary Jury Trials Committee of the Jury Trial Project of the New York State Courts from 2003 to 2005. She is a Charter Member of the American College of Business Court Judges and sits on the Executive Committee of the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association. She has also served as a director on different committees of various bar and judicial associations.
Among the many honors she has received are Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoria causa, from Alfred University in 2008, at which time she was the Commencement Speaker; Induction in Phi Beta Kappa in 2006; the Abigail Allen award from Alfred University in 2004; the Edith I. Spivack Award of the Women’s Rights Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association in 2003; the Founder’s Award of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York in 1999, and Women of Valor Award of the Women’s Medical Association of New York City in 1995. Justice Moskowitz is also a frequent lecturer on topics including civility in the courtroom, commercial litigation, e-discovery and women’s issues.
Justice Moskowitz retired from the Appellate Division in 2017. In February 2018 Justice Moskowitz joined NAM [National Arbitration and Mediation] as a Hearing Officer also referred to as a neutral.