SCHUMER RECOMMENDS KATHLEEN SWEET, BUFFALO NATIVE & DISTINGUISHED WESTERN NY ATTORNEY, TO SERVE ON THE WESTERN DISTRICT COURT – IF CONFIRMED, SWEET WOULD BE FIRST-EVER WOMAN TO SERVE ON THE FEDERAL BENCH IN BUFFALO
Kathleen Sweet, Born & Raised In Buffalo, Has Had A Tremendous Career As A Top Litigator In Buffalo – Ms. Sweet Has Earned A Reputation As A Formidable Legal Professional, Particularly In The Fields Of Medical & Health Law
Schumer: Kathleen Sweet is Extremely Bright, Fair-Minded and Experienced; She Embodies All The Best Qualities Of A Legal Professional and will be Great Judge
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer announced today he is recommending Kathleen Sweet to President Obama to serve as a judge in the United States District Court in the Western District of New York (WDNY). Sweet would be the first-ever woman to sit on the federal bench in Buffalo and the second to serve on the bench in the Western District after Justice Elizabeth Wolford in Rochester, also a Schumer recommendation. Schumer laid out several reasons Sweet would make an excellent fit for the job, saying that Sweet has a tremendous legal background, impressive intelligence, fair-mindedness, a proven commitment to serving the community and a lifetime of experience in the Buffalo area, including more than twenty years as a practicing lawyer.
“I am honored to recommend Kathleen Sweet, a true daughter of Buffalo, to President Obama to be the first woman to serve on the Western District federal bench in Buffalo,” said Schumer. “Kathleen Sweet has a deep commitment to Buffalo – a city where she was born and raised; she has exceptional experience and an incisive legal mind. She has a tremendous resume and the expertise needed to fill the seat, and I am confident she will be a fair, insightful, and well-respected judge. I will work very hard to make sure she is confirmed as quickly as possible.”
Born in 1965 and raised in Buffalo, Sweet attended Boston College on a full athletic scholarship for basketball. She attended law school at Villanova, where she was Chair of the Moot Court Board. At graduation, she received the Herman Mitchell Schwartz Award, given to the student who contributed most to the achievement of equality of opportunity and treatment for women.
After law school, Sweet worked in the New York State Appellate Division courts as a law clerk for two years, and has since been a successful private practitioner at various prestigious Buffalo firms, including Damon Morey (1992-1993), Brown & Tarantino (1993-1997), and Gibson, McAskill & Crosby (1998-present). Her practice has focused on civil cases in the fields of medical and health law, and she has earned a reputation as a respected and formidable litigator. Sweet is certified as a federal court mediator in the Western District of New York. Schumer said Sweet has served the WDNY legal community on the Board of the Bar Association of Erie County, of which she was the President for 2012-2013.
Schumer said Sweet has been repeatedly recognized and honored by her peers for her professional accomplishments. She received the M. Dolores Denman Lady Justice Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Western Chapter of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York in 2004. She has also been named to myriad lists of high-achieving attorneys, including “Forty under Forty,” “Woman of Influence,” “Who’s Who in the Law,” “Best Lawyers in America,” “New York’s Best Lawyers,” “New York’s Superlawyers,” and “Top 25 Upstate Women Lawyers.” Sweet was named “Buffalo Lawyer of the Year” in 2012 in the field of medical malpractice defense. In addition, she is the only woman from Buffalo who is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.
During college, Sweet was a member of the Big East Conference All-Rookie and Second Team All-Conference teams. She was named the Big East Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year, and in 2004 she was inducted into the Boston College Athletic Hall of Fame. Throughout high school and college she represented Western New York at the Empire State Games as a member of the gold-medal winning Women’s Open basketball team.
Ms. Sweet lives in Orchard Park with her husband, Brian Fredericks, and their two children, Caroline and Michael.
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