Dena Douglas, a Caribbean-American justice with Grenadian roots, was honored with the “Judge of the Year” award by the Kings County Criminal Bar Association during a gala ceremony in Brooklyn on April 30.
Justice Douglas, a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Criminal Term, Kings County, received the Gustin L. Reichbach Judicial Recognition Award during the association’s annual awards dinner at Giando on the Water in Williamsburg. Organizers said the sold-out event attracted more than 300 members of New York’s legal community.
“To be named ‘Judge of the Year’ by this organization is a distinction I do not take lightly,” Douglas said in her acceptance speech. “I am deeply grateful.”
Born in Brooklyn to a father from Carriacou, Douglas reflected on her Caribbean heritage and her father’s influence on her legal career.
She said her late father, David Douglas, migrated to the United States from Carriacou, attended law school at night, became an assistant district attorney and later established a private law practice in downtown Brooklyn that operated for more than two decades.
“My father taught me that a life in law is a life in service,” Douglas said. “Tonight, I accept this honor in his memory, in gratitude to all of you, and in continued commitment to the people of Kings County.”
Douglas, who grew up in Flatbush and graduated from St. John’s University School of Law, also spoke candidly about the challenges she faced as a Black woman working in the prosecutor’s office.
She recalled entering rooms where her presence was unexpected and said she often had to work “twice as hard to be taken half as seriously.”
“And yet, I stayed, I fought, I built,” she told the audience. “Because I understood that the work mattered and that who was doing the work mattered, too.”
Douglas said the same determination carried her to the bench, where she acknowledged being among a relatively small number of judges of color to receive the Reichbach Award.
“This recognition is not just mine; it belongs to my community,” she said. “It sends a message that our presence on the bench matters, that our contributions are seen, and that excellence in the service of justice knows no single face.”
During the speech, Douglas also paid tribute to her family, including her two children, Floyd Patterson Jr. and Noelle Patterson.
She reflected on the death of her husband, Floyd Patterson, who died from brain cancer in 2014 at age 50. Patterson was born in Trinidad and Tobago to Grenadian parents.
Douglas also acknowledged her 91-year-old mother, Doris Douglas, whose parents were from Carriacou and who still resides in Brooklyn.
Douglas has served as a New York State Supreme Court Justice in Kings County since 2007. Before joining the bench, she held senior legal positions as an assistant deputy attorney general, a senior trial attorney in counterterrorism with the U.S. Department of Justice, and a bureau chief in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office.
Organizers said the gala sold out three weeks in advance and drew a waiting list of more than 40 people, describing it as a reflection of the stature of this year’s honorees.
