Dora Irizarry

Who is Dora Irizarry?

Dora Lizette Irizarry is a Federal Judge in New York. She was born in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico and was raised in the Bronx in New York City. She attended the Bronx High School of Science and went on to graduate from Yale University in 1976 and Columbia University Law School in 1979. After law school, she worked as an assistant district attorney in the Bronx and Manhattan from 1979 to 1981. Irizarry said she wanted to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods she grew up in, and specialized in drug and narcotics cases.

She was appointed a New York City Criminal Court Judge by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and then a Judge of the New York Court of Claims by Governor George Pataki. As a Court of Claims Judge she served as an Acting Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, sitting in Brooklyn and Manhattan. She was the first Hispanic woman to serve as a state judge in New York.

She was an Assistant district attorney of Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, Bronx County District Attorney's Office, New York from 1981 to 1987.