Honorable Llinét M. Rosado ’97 and Professor Laurie Shanks Named 2024 Stoneman Honorees
Albany Law School’s Kate Stoneman Honorary Committee is proud to announce The Honorable Llinét M. Rosado ’97 and Professor Laurie Shanks as 2024 Kate Stoneman honorees.
The Committee previously announced Verna L. Williams, CEO of Equal Justice Works as the 2024 recipient of the prestigious Miriam M. Netter ’72 Stoneman Award.
All three will be honored at this year’s Kate Stoneman Day on Wednesday, March 27, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. Register here.
Albany Law School's Stoneman Awards are presented to individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to seeking change and expanding opportunities for women within the legal profession. The awards are in honor of Kate Stoneman, Class of 1898, the first woman admitted to practice law in New York State and the first female graduate of Albany Law School.
Hon. Llinét M. Rosado ’97 was appointed to the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division by Gov. Kathy Hochul in August 2023. Hon. Rosado has served as a judge for more than a decade.
She was first appointed as a judge for the Civil Court of the City of New York in Bronx County in 2013 and was designated Acting Justice of the Bronx County Supreme Court in 2016. Prior to her election to the bench, she served as a public defender; an attorney for children; and a court attorney for three judges. Justice Rosado is a Commissioner of the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission, a member of the Gender Fairness Committee for the 12th Judicial District, the New York State Bench Book Committee, and the New York State Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts.
She is a member of Advisory Board of the Thurgood Marshall Junior Mock Trial Competition and First Department Vice President of the National Association of Women Judges, NY Chapter.
“Throughout her career, Justice Rosado has dedicated significant time and energy to supporting other women and girls and encouraging them to pursue legal careers and she has opened doors that historically have been closed to women lawyers. She is immersed in her Bronx community speaking, teaching, and appearing on programs which serve to inspire young people from marginalized communities to model and inspire them seek pathways to the bar and bench,” said Professor Mary Lynch, Kate Stoneman Chair in Law and Democracy, in her nomination of Rosado.
As a law student, she spent a significant portion of her time in the clinic as part of the team representing Charline Brundidge, the first incarcerated New Yorker to receive clemency for killing her violent abuser.
Prof. Laurie Shanks has devoted much of her career to mentoring hundreds of young women throughout their legal careers and teaching and training young lawyers as a professor in addition to her robust private practice.
She joined the faculty at Albany Law School in January of 1989 as a Clinical Instructor. She was later promoted to Clinical Professor of Law. She taught and supervised students in the Disabilities Law Clinic, the Domestic Violence Clinic, the Field Placement Program, the Summer-in-Practice program, and Semester-in-Practice program. In addition to her clinical teaching, she also taught a number of courses aimed at training law students in the basic skills needed to practice law in an ethical and responsible manner.
Prior to joining the faculty at Albany Law School, Shanks served as the Training Director for the Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office in Phoenix, Arizona. In that role, she trained and mentored young attorneys hired to provide legal representation to indigent defendants. For more than 25 years, she has taught annually at the National College of Criminal Defense and at the New York State Defenders Association Trial Practice Institute.
In addition to her teaching and mentoring, Prof. Shanks has also provided countless hours of pro bono representation often representing women who were victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
“Professor Shanks, without fail, demonstrated outstanding leadership and tireless effort in championing the advancement of women in the legal profession. She not only worked hard to protect and serve all victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, she encouraged all of her students to strive to be the best possible advocate for victims they served as well as our clients. I have seen her take less confident women students under her wing and mold them into strong, powerful advocates throughout the course of her career at Albany Law,” said Hon. Holly A. Trexler ’97 in her nomination of Shanks.