Giving Back While Being A Judge

The Honorable Carolyn E. Wade is an acting Justice of the New York Supreme Court, 2^nd Judicial District, Civil Term since 2012. In 2017, she was re-elected to the New York City Civil Court. Judge Wade is running for the New York Supreme Court, 2nd Judicial District, on the Democratic, Republican and Conservative party lines. She received her J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law in 1988.

Wade started her legal career as an associate at a trusts and estates firm where she also handled landlord-tenant disputes. She served as Principal Court Attorney in the New York Supreme Court system from 1989-1999 and then as Principal Law Clerk from until 2007. “You learn so much. You get experience with a lot of issues,” Judge Wade told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 2015. As a judge, she appreciates the opportunity to “give back” by mentoring young people.

Judge Wade is admitted to the United Sates District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York; the United States Supreme Court; and the New York State Appellate Department. She is also a member of numerous lawyer’s associations, such as the Brooklyn Women's Bar Association, Queens Women's Bar Association, Catholic Lawyer’s Guild, National Bar Association, and National Association of Women Judges.

Wade was elected as a Kings County Civil Court Judge in 2007, was a Queens County Civil Court Judge in 2008 and was then re-assigned to Kings County in 2009. In 2015, Wade was the Presiding justice in the Mental Hygiene Court in Kings County, ensuring compliance with Article 9 of the Mental Hygiene Law, which sets standards for treatment and hospitalization of psychiatric patients. She has been a member of the Women’s Bar Association and the Catholic Lawyers Guild.

Her father, the late George E. Wade, Jr., was a soldier in World War II and Kings County Supreme Court Justice. “He told us you can’t complain about anything,” Judge Carolyn Wade told the Brooklyn Eagle. Her father was a trolley driver by day and went to law school at night. Wade’s twin sister, Cheryl Wade-King, is also an attorney at the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal.