Judge J. Machelle Sweeting: Professional Background and Legal Expertise

The Hon. J. Machelle Sweeting is a judge for the Family Court of the City of New York in New York County. She was elected to the bench in 2015.

Prior to her election, Sweeting held various positions with the New York State Unified Court System. She served as a special referee in the Matrimonial Division of the Kings County Supreme Court, a senior principal law clerk for the Appellate Division of the Second Department of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, and a principal law clerk for the Kings County Supreme Court.

She has also served as an administrative law judge for the Taxi & Limousine Commission in the Office of Administrative Hearings and Trials, an assistant district attorney for the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, and an assistant attorney for the Office of Corporation Counsel in the New York City Law Department. While with the New York City Law Department, Sweeting was a founding attorney of the Special Federal Litigation Unit.

Sweeting earned a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law in 1997. She then completed a certificate in legal education at the Eugene Dupuch School of Law in the Bahamas in 2007.

Born and raised in the Polo Ground Housing Projects in Harlem, Sweeting frequently visited the Bahamas. Her father was a policeman in the Bahamas.