Jamaican Carol Sharpe wins election to NY Supreme Court bench

Jamaican-American judge Carol Sharpe was on Tuesday elected to the New York Supreme Court.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to continue to serve the public as a Justice of the Supreme Court. I embrace this milestone wholeheartedly,” she said of her latest accomplishment.

She added: “I am mindful of those in whose footsteps I follow to ensure that everyone is treated justly and fairly.  I thank my family, siblings, friends, and those who have supported me.  I am grateful for the sound values entrenched in me as a child in Jamaica and, of course, I use this occasion to honour my parents of blessed memory.”

Migrated

In 1976 Carol Sharpe, just out of The Queens High School in Kingston, migrated to the Bronx, New York, along with her siblings and parents.

The former Half-Way-Tree Primary student enrolled in Lehman College in the Bronx then Boston University School of Law.

Career

Justice-elect Carol Sharpe began her legal career at the Bronx District Attorney’s Office in January 1986, where she served for seven years as an Assistant District Attorney trying felony cases, including homicide cases. After leaving the District Attorney’s Office she joined Bower and Gardner, a prominent medical malpractice defense law firm until it closed in 1994. She was hired as a trial attorney by the New York City Transit Authority, Torts Division.

After trying numerous personal injury cases, Judge Sharpe transferred to the Labor and Employment Division where she litigated cases in state and federal courts, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the New York State Division of Human Rights, and handled the appeals, including oral arguments in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

In January 2010, Judge Sharpe joined Bronx County Supreme Court Justice Sharon Aarons, now Justice of the Appellate Division, Third Department, as her Principal Law Secretary. In September 2013 she rejoined the Labour and Employment Division of the Transit Authority, but left again in December 2013 upon being elected as a Judge of Civil Court of New York County.

Upon taking the bench in January 2014, Judge Sharpe was assigned to the Bronx County Criminal Court for two and a half years until she was transferred to Bronx County Civil Court. In January 2017 she was assigned to the New York County Civil Court and in January 2018, she was appointed Supervising Judge of New York County Civil Court and Acting Supreme Court Justice.

Nominated

On August 10, 2020, Judge Sharpe was one of four judges selected by the New York County Democratic Party Judicial Convention to be nominated for election to the New York County Supreme Court on November 3, 2020.

Immediately after being nominated for election, she was assigned to preside over one of the Court’s specially designated Guardianship Part where she presides over guardianship cases.

Her latest achievement is all the more remarkable for the fact that she won her election while recovering from the effects of COVID-19. She was hospitalised for a week in late March, during which she was a candidate for the trial drug Remdesvir. That was only her latest health challenge, having earlier overcome the ravages of cancer.