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Once again, congratulations to Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo, who was sworn in on October 9, 2015. Her appointment was featured in World Journal, a prominent Chinese language newspaper. To read a translation of the article, “EDNY Adds Another Asian Female Judge,” which mentions AABANY President William Wang, read below. To read the article, click on the link in the title.

Thank you to AABANY Member Lucia Yang for the translation.

Peggy Kuo was appointed to be the third Asian American judge in the United States District Court, Eastern District Court of New York. Kuo graduated from Harvard Law School, used to work as the Deputy Director of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings of New York City and the Chief Hearing Officer of NYSE.

Peggy Kuo, 51, graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School. She used to clerk for Judge Judith Rogers at the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, worked as the Assistant U.S. Attorney of the District of Columbia and the Acting Deputy Chief of U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. In addition, she worked as a prosecutor at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague from 1998 to 2002, where she was in charge of investigating and prosecuting the war criminals in former Yugoslavia and crimes against humanity. 

Kuo served as the Chief Hearing Officer at the NYSE for six years since 2005, and then served as the Deputy Director and General Counsel of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings of New York City since February, 2011. Kuo’s appointment to be the Magistrate Judge of the Eastern District Court of New York was approved on July 21, 2015. She was sworn in recently. Meanwhile, Kuo is a member of the Asian American Bar Association of New York and served as the vice president of Manhattan Legal Services and on the board of the Federal Bar Council.

Kuo’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan when she was three and hence she can speak fluent Taiwanese. Her father works as civil engineer in New York, while her mother takes care of the family. Kuo is second of four sisters in her family, all her sisters become doctors or lawyers. Kuo said that she never thought about becoming a law enforcer when she was a child, “because at that time, there was basically no female judges or district attorneys.” But after graduating from law school, she decided to give it a try and now has become one of the few Asian American judges in federal courts. 

The Asian American Bar Association of New York applauded her appointment and congratulated on her selection. President William Wang pointed out that Kuo’s appointment represented an increasing number of Asian American judges in federal courts, and reflected the efforts of federal courts to appoint judges from diverse background. Wang also stated that the number of Asian American judges in all levels of U.S. courts is disproportionate with the number Asian American members in the community. AABANY will make continuous efforts to have more qualified Asians serve in the judicial branch.

Peggy Kuo’s appointment made her the third Asian American judge in Eastern District of New York. The other two are Judge Pamela Chen and Magistrate Judge Marilyn D. Go. All of the three judges are female.