Janet DiFiore

Janet Marie DiFiore (born August 9, 1955) is an American lawyer and judge who served as the Chief Judge of New York Court of Appeals from 2016 to 2022. DiFiore was born in Mount Vernon, New York, and graduated from Long Island University and St. John's University School of Law. As a practicing attorney, DiFiore worked in a law firm and in the Westchester District Attorney's Office. DiFiore then was elected a judge of the Westchester County Court, and was subsequently named a justice of the New York Supreme Court (the state trial court in New York), serving in that post from 2003 to 2005. DiFiore left the bench to become district attorney of Westchester County, New York, in 2006; she stayed in that position nearly a decade, until Governor Andrew Cuomo nominated her to the New York Court of Appeals. Her nomination was confirmed by the New York State Senate. She started her term as the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals in New York on January 21, 2016. She resigned on July 11, 2022, effective August 31, 2022, amid misconduct proceedings into her alleged attempt to influence a disciplinary hearing.^[1]