Denise Cote

Denise Cote

Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Incumbent
Assumed office December 15, 2011
Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
In office August 10, 1994 – December 15, 2011
Appointed by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Mary Johnson Lowe
Succeeded by	Katherine Polk Failla
Personal details
Born	1946 (age 70–71) St. Cloud, Minnesota, U.S.
Alma mater	St. Mary's College (B.A.) Columbia University (M.A.) Columbia Law School (J.D.)

Denise Louise Cote (born 1946) is a senior United States federal judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Cote was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She received a B.A. from St. Mary's College in 1968 and an M.A. in history from Columbia University in 1969, after which she taught U.S. history, world history, and African-American history at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a school in Manhattan. Cote then attended Columbia Law School, where she was Notes & Comments Editor of the Columbia Law Review, and she received her law degree (J.D.) in 1975.

After law school, Cote clerked for the Hon. Jack B. Weinstein, U.S. District Judge in the Eastern District of New York, in 1975-76. Cote worked in private practice as a litigator in New York City from 1976 to 1977 at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, and again from 1985 to 1991 at Kaye Scholer. She also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York in the office's Criminal Division from 1977 to 1985, and returned to the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1991 under U.S. Attorney Otto G. Obermaier to serve as Chief of the SDNY Criminal Division, the first woman to ever serve in that position. As Chief of the Criminal Division, Cote supervised approximately 140 lawyers and overhauled the USAO's training program for young attorneys. In 1994, Cote briefly served as a Special Assistant to the Assistant U.S. Attorney General of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., before being confirmed to her federal judgeship.