Biography

Barbara Moses was sworn in as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York on December 23, 2015.

Judge Moses graduated from Dartmouth College in 1978 and from Harvard Law School in 1982. Between college and law school she worked as a radio reporter in New England. After receiving her law degree, Judge Moses clerked for Chief Judge Vincent L. McKusick of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. She then joined the San Francisco office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, where she became a partner in 1990. In 1992, Judge Moses moved to Orrick’s New York office, and in 2002 she joined the New York firm now known as Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason & Anello, where she continued to practice in the field of securities and business litigation.

From 2009 through 2011, in addition to her private practice, Judge Moses taught a full-year, first-year course in Lawyering at NYU Law School. From 2011 through 2015 she directed the Constitutional and Civil Rights Litigation Clinic at Seton Hall Law School, where she also taught Professional Responsibility.

Judge Moses has been a director of the New York County Lawyers’ Association since 2007. From 2013 to 2014 she served as NYCLA’s 59th President, and from 2004 to 2006 she chaired the NYCLA Federal Courts Committee, which honored her with the David Y. Hinshaw Award in 2015. In 2023, NYCLA conferred the Boris Kostelanetz President's Medal on Judge Moses and Judge Stewart Aaron. Judge Moses is also a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State and New York City Bar Associations, and an elected member of the American Law Institute.