Judge J. Machelle SweetingSpeaker and Booking Agent Information

She was the only African American female judge in New York County Family Court for five years, where she presided over the most complex cases involving custody, visitation, child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, and juvenile delinquency; and cases filed by undocumented persons under the age of 21 seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.

She also presided over the nation's first state-wide "Remote Access Part," which allowed people to attend in court through Skype or other electronic methods, long before technology had been incorporated into the court system.

Judge Sweeting earned her law degree from Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, and the Eugene Dupuch Law School in the Bahamas, after majoring in US history at Davidson College in North Carolina. She has also studied law at the Universities of London and Exeter in England, as well as the Universities of Zimbabwe and Botswana in Africa.

Judge Sweeting led a U.S.

group of women Judges and attorneys on a pilgrimage to Ghana, Africa, in 2019, with the Association of Black Women Attorneys and the Institute of International Affairs, where she lectured on the topic of "reinforcing connections and engaging with the diaspora." Before members of the Ghanaian legal profession and dignitaries, including Ghana's Attorney General, Judge Sweeting made the address on behalf of the US delegation.

Judge Sweeting has also spoken to US delegations in Jamaica and Haiti on key immigration issues like the Deferred Action Plan and the Dream Act, as well as their impact on Caribbean people. Prior to her appointment to the court, she worked as an Assistant Corporation Counsel with distinction (she was a founding attorney of the Special Litigation Division).

She has also worked as an Administrative Law Judge, an Assistant District Attorney, a Law Clerk to a Supreme Court and Appellate Justice, and an Adjunct Law Professor in the Supreme Court Matrimonial Division.

Judge Sweeting is a member of the Caribbean American Lawyers Association, the NAACP, the National Bar Association, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., the Women's Bar, the Metropolitan Black Bar, the New York State Bar, the Association of Black Women Attorneys, the American Bar Association, and the Family Court Judges Association, among other local, state, and national organizations.

She has received several accolades, including the rare distinction of being chosen as a Marshal in the African American Day Parade. Judge Sweeting is also a dedicated mentor to a large number of students and is committed to creating a successful pipeline for those interested in a career in law.

She welcomes people to her courtroom (both in-person and online) on a regular basis to witness the inner workings of our justice system and to educate them about their rights and duties as citizens. Her devotion to kids began while she was a law student at Rutgers, where she founded the school's first legal training program for high school students.

Judge Sweeting is a well-known motivational speaker whose words of encouragement have inspired a new generation of civic-minded community leaders to seek a legal career.