Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman; Retired Presiding Justice, New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department
2025 John Jay Award Honoree
Hon. Rolando Acosta CC'79
Hon. Rolando T. Acosta CC’79, LAW’82, a litigation partner with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, served for a quarter-century as an innovative and community-minded New York trial and appellate judge, presiding over hundreds of bench and jury trials and thousands of appeals in civil and criminal cases.
Most notably, he served on the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department for 15 years, including for six years as presiding justice.
Acosta is a trustee emeritus of Columbia University, which awarded him its Medal for Excellence in 2000 and a Columbia University Alumni Medal in 2022. Acosta is a member of the Dean’s Council of the Law School, which awarded him its highest honors, the Wien Prize for Social Responsibility in 2013 and the Columbia Law School Medal for Excellence in 2024. He was the Columbia College Class Day speaker in 2020.
As an undergraduate, Acosta starred as a right-handed pitcher and received every athletics prize that can be awarded to a pitcher by the Ivy League and the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League during four years of varsity play, including Ivy League Pitcher of the Year twice. He led the Lions to two Ivy League championships and after 45 years still holds Columbia’s records for most career and season wins, starts and innings pitched. He was inducted into the Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.
Acosta’s judicial career began when he was elected to New York County Civil Court in 1997 and to the New York State Supreme Court in New York County in 2002. He was the first Dominican to hold that position and spearheaded the creation of the Harlem Community Justice Center, a multijurisdictional community court program. He was appointed by the governor to the Appellate Division, First Department in 2008 and was appointed to serve as that Court’s Presiding Justice in May 2017. He retired from the bench in March 2023.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Acosta grew up in the South Bronx and Washington Heights after immigrating to New York City with his family at 14. Throughout his career, beginning as a public interest lawyer with The Legal Aid Society and a deputy commissioner for the New York City Commission on Human Rights, Acosta served as a civic leader in Washington Heights. Now a leader in New York’s legal community, he remains committed to the rule of law and frequently speaks to new attorneys on the importance of giving back. He is the husband of Vasthi Reyes Acosta TC’94, TC’95 and father of Lucas Acosta and Zila Acosta-Grimes CC’11, LAW’15.
