Hector Gonzalez was appointed United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York by President Joseph R. Biden on April 18, 2022, to a seat vacated by Brian M. Cogan, and entered on duty on April 21, 2022.

Judge Gonzalez obtained his B.S. degree from Manhattan College in 1985 and his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1988, where he was an editor of the Law Review. He also received an M.A. degree from the City University of New York in 1995.

Prior to his appointment to the federal bench, Judge Gonzalez was a partner at Dechert LLP and was the chair of the firm’s global litigation group. His practice focused on complex commercial, securities and white-collar litigation, and investigations before regulatory bodies. He was a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Judge Gonzalez previously was an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he served as Chief of the Narcotics Unit. He also served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

Throughout his career, Judge Gonzalez has been involved with several nonprofit legal organizations and has served on a volunteer basis in various governmental roles. For example, Judge Gonzalez served for six years (including four years as chair) on the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board. Judge Gonzalez was a Fulbright Scholar in Guatemala City, Guatemala, where he taught trial advocacy at the University of San Carlos.

Judge Gonzalez was born in 1964 in Havana, Cuba. He and his family migrated to the United States in 1969. He was raised in Queens, New York.