Hon. Terry Jane Ruderman is the presiding justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Term, Second Judicial Department for the Ninth and Tenth Judicial Districts. She was appointed presiding justice of the Appellate Term by Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks in 2021.
Chief Administrative Judge Marks first appointed Ruderman associate justice of the Appellate Term in 2017. At the time, she was serving as a justice of the Westchester County Supreme Court. Ruderman was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2015. She was later certificated to the position (2016 to 2017, 2018 to 2019, and 2020 to 2021).
Ruderman began her judicial career as a judge for the New York State Court of Claims after being appointed to the seat by former Governor George Pataki in 1995. She remained on the Court of Claims bench until 2015.
Ruderman received a B.A. from George Washington University in 1966. She also holds a M.A.T. from Cornell University (1967) and an M.A. from the City University of New York (1973). Ruderman then completed a Ph.D. in history at the City University of New York Graduate Center (1977) and a J.D. at Pace University School of Law (1980).
Prior to joining the bench, Ruderman served in both the public and private sectors. During her tenure in private practice, she was an associate at Fink Weinberger.
In the public arena, Ruderman served as an assistant to the County Executive with the Office of the County Executive in Westchester County, a deputy county attorney with the Office of the County Attorney in Westchester County, and as an assistant district attorney with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office.
Ruderman also served as a principal law clerk to the Hon. Kenneth Rudolph with the New York State Supreme Court.
She was a former president of the New York State Association of Women Judges, the White Plains Bar Association, and the Cornell University Alumni Association of Westchester.
Her committee memberships included the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct (vice-chair), the New York State Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts, and the Ninth Judicial District Committee to Promote Gender Fairness in the Courts.
Ruderman also held memberships with the Judicial Section of the New York State Bar Association, the Pace University School of Law Alumni Association (board member), the Cornell University President’s Council of Cornell Women, the New York State Judicial Institute on Professionalism in the Law, the New York State Association of Women Judges, Second Department (vice president), and the New York State-Federal Judicial Council.