Biography
JUSTICE EILEEN BRANSTEN is a graduate of Hunter College (summa cum laude, 1975) and Fordham University School of Law (1979). After law school, from 1979 to 1984, she served in the Queens County District Attorney’s Office and then worked as a solo practitioner for seven years. In 1992, she became the Principal Court Attorney and Law Secretary to Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline W. Silbermann, who at that time was also Administrative Judge of the Civil Court of the City of New York.
Justice Bransten was elected to the Civil Court in 1993 and was appointed an Acting Supreme Court Justice in 1996. As an Acting Justice, she presided over a General Trial and then a Matrimonial Part. She was elected to the New York State Supreme Court in November 1999. In 2001, she was assigned to the medical malpractice part. She was assigned to the Commercial Division in March 2008.
Throughout her legal career, Justice Bransten has been active in numerous bar associations and organizations. Justice Bransten is currently Co-President of Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert (JALBCA). She has been a faculty member for continuing legal education programs conducted by the New York State Bar Association, New York State Trial Lawyers Association and New York County Lawyers Association and has lectured on topics ranging from medical malpractice to ethics. Justice Bransten was an active member of the New York City Civil Court’s Anti-Gender Bias Committee. She also serves as Presiding Member of the New York State Bar Association’s Judicial Section and as Vice-President of the New York State Supreme Court Board of Justices. Justice Bransten has volunteered as a judge for moot-court and mock-trial programs at Columbia Law School, Fordham University School of Law School, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. She was inducted into the Hunter College Alumni Hall of Fame and serves on the Board of Directors of Fordham University’s law school. For over eighteen years, Justice Bransten has volunteered at the Blessed Sacrament Soup Kitchen.