Judge of Distinction The Women of Color Collective honors Judge Doris Ling-Cohan ’79 with its 2016 award.
Honoring Latinas At the annual Latino Law Students Association (LaLSA) dinner, Ignacia Moreno ’90, chief executive officer and principal of the iMoreno Group, was honored with the association’s Distinguished Alumna Award (for more on Moreno see story on page 14). LaLSA’s Community Organization Award went to the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the only national organization dedicated to advancing reproductive justice goals among Latinas.
THE PEOPLE
N
ot every judge takes her interns to karaConscious of the lack of representation of Asian oke as an educational experience. But for Americans within the judiciary, Ling-Cohan decided Monica Cheng, former intern to Judge to run for a position on New York City’s Civil Court when she saw a vacancy. She was elected to that court Doris Ling-Cohan ’79 of the New York State Supreme Court, one such karaoke trip became in 1995 and served until 2002, when she was elected a formative lesson: She remembers the judge telling to the New York State Supreme Court. her that if she could get over her fear and stand up “She’s very interested in people and understands to sing in front of a group of strangers, she would be people’s problems,” says Torrey Whitman, executive able to be a fearless lawyer, too. Ling-Cohan, New director of NYU Law’s Institute of Judicial AdminisYork’s first Asian American woman tration. “Even now on the appellate to serve as an appellate judge, takes “As a child, I didn’t court, she can still bring her knowldare to dream. her work as a mentor as seriously edge of real-world New York and her Reality simply stifled as her docket. In recognition of her sympathy for the issues people face my dreams.” leadership and lifetime of work in to bear on her judging.” public service, Ling-Cohan was the One of Ling-Cohan’s most highprofile decisions was in the 2005 case Hernandez recipient of the 2016 Woman of Distinction Award from the Women of Color Collective (WoCC). The v. Robles, in which she ruled in favor of the right of award was presented by WoCC Alumnae Chair same-sex couples to marry. When her decision was Elizabeth Zhou ’17 (pictured below). reversed by the New York Court of Appeals, LingGrowing up, Ling-Cohan did not imagine that Cohan says, “I felt a personal loss. I realized what it one day she would be a leader, or even a lawyer. “As meant to the individuals involved in the case and to a child, I didn’t dare to dream. Reality simply stifled anybody who was gay or lesbian and really wanted my dreams,” Ling-Cohan recalled in her speech at to marry their partner.” the WoCC ceremony. “Growing up in Manhattan’s On the first day on which the New York State Chinatown, my parents were immigrants. My father Legislature permitted same-sex marriage, Judge worked in a laundry, and my mother was a seam- Ling- Cohan volunteered and performed 24 stress. As a child, I too worked in a sewing factory weddings, including the marriages of several of the original plaintiffs in Hernandez v. Robles. Although sewing and cutting thread.” Ling-Cohan entered law school hoping that her at the time of her decision Ling-Cohan faced law degree could be a tool for social change, for both criticism and death threats, she felt vindicated for her own community and other disadvantaged groups. standing by her convictions when nearly a decade Although WoCC did not yet exist, as a member of later the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decithe Asian Pacific American Law Students Associa- sion in Obergefell v. Hodges came down—a lesson tion (APALSA), “she helped look out for the newbies, she imparted to current law especially at a time when we were a small minority students in her WoCC at the Law School,” says Sharon Hom ’80, executive speech. “Do not fear director of Human Rights in China. criticism. Do the right As a young lawyer, Ling-Cohan worked for several thing,” she said. “And New York legal services agencies. At the same time, most importantly, she helped found the Asian American Bar Associa- push the envelope tion of New York and the New York Asian Women’s by dreaming on Center (NYAWC), an organization that provides sup- a grand scale port and legal assistance for victims of domestic for your violence and other forms of abuse. community.” In the early days of NYAWC, she and the other Rachel founders often opened their own homes to women Burns in need. “Late one night, my husband and I drove to a hospital in Chinatown and picked up a woman and her child, to give them a safe place to stay,” LingCohan says. “I saw the woman a few years later, and she seemed to be doing well.”
45