Spouse(s) Cynthia Laird Name Victoria Kolakowski | Role Judge | |
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Full Name Michael Kolakowski Born August 29, 1961 (age 63) Queens, New York ( 1961-08-29 ) Alma mater Education |
Balif judge victoria kolakowski
Victoria Kolakowski (born August 29, 1961 in Queens, New York) is an American lawyer, and, since January 2011, judge of the Alameda County Superior Court. Kolakowski is the first openly transgender person to serve as a trial judge in California.
Contents
- Balif judge victoria kolakowski
- Judicial candidate victoria kolakowski on comcast newsmakers
- Early life and education
- Career
- Honors and awards
- Personal life
- References

Judicial candidate victoria kolakowski on comcast newsmakers
Early life and education

Kolakowski is the daughter of Martin and June Kolakowski of Staten Island, New York. She is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School in New York City and the first person in her family to attend college. Kolakowski graduated from New College of Florida in Sarasota, Florida with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Sciences in 1982.

She earned a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University in 1987 and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from University of New Orleans in 1990.

Kolakowski graduated from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a juris doctor in 1989 as Michael Kolakowski. She began her transition during her last semester of law school. Kolakowski underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1991. Kolakowski had to sue to take the bar exam in Louisiana after coming out as transgender.

In 1997, Kolakowski received a Master of Divinity degree from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California.
Career

Before she was elected with 51% of the vote to her opponent's 48% on November 2, 2010, Kolakowski served as an administrative law judge with the California Public Utilities Commission for four years.

She was co-chair of the Bay Area Transgender Law Association from 1996 to 2000. She has been a member of the National Association of Women Judges since 2006.
Kolakowski is a Christian and an ordained minister in the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, a Protestant Christian denomination.
Honors and awards
Personal life
Kolakowski married Cynthia Laird, news editor of the Bay Area Reporter, on June 16, 2008. Ron Dellums performed the ceremony.