Chief Judge Hon. Laura Taylor Swain,
Judge, Judge Laura Taylor Swain was appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on July 11, 2000, and entered on duty on August 31, 2000. She became Chief Judge of the Court on April 10, 2021.A native New Yorker, Chief Judge Swain graduated from Radcliffe College of Harvard University, cum laude, and from the Harvard Law School. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Constance Baker Motley from 1982 to 1983. She practiced law with a private firm in New York until 1996. Judge Swain was also the first woman, and first person of color, to serve as a member of the New York State Board of Law Examiners, and served as such for 10 years prior to taking the bench.She served as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of New York from November 1996 until August 2000. Judge Swain chaired the Advisory Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States on the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure from 2007 to 2010. Judge Swain has served the judiciary and the community through committee and board membership of numerous organizations, and has received numerous awards as well as honorary degrees. Since May 2017, Judge Swain has presided, by designation of the Chief Justice of the United States pursuant to the federal PROMESA statute, over the PROMESA debt restructuring proceedings for Puerto Rico.
