AM announces the 2024 Commencement Speaker, Judge Kevin F. Russo '74

Kevin Russo was born in New York City, one of five boys born to Anthony Russo and Lorraine Gallagher. Kevin grew up in Rockland where he’s resided for the last 58 years.  He graduated from Albertus Magnus High School and was a member of Albertus Magnus’s Cross Country County Championship team in 1971 as well as its Section 9 championship in 1972 and also earned First Team All-County Honors in track in 1972. He graduated from Dominican University in Orangeburg, N.Y. where he earned two degrees in three years and has been a member of the Dominican College Alumni Advisory Board for the past 30 years.  Kevin obtained his juris doctorate from Pace University School of Law graduating as a ranking scholar.

    
Kevin practiced law for over 25 years and is the author of several published articles in the real estate field.  He is an original member of the Columbian Lawyers Association of Rockland County which promotes Italian cultural heritage among attorneys, the Rockland County Bar Association and the New York State and Rockland Magistrates Association.  He is licensed to practice in all state courts in New York & New Jersey, the Eastern & Southern Districts of New York, the United States Court of Claims & the Supreme Court of the United States.

He was elected Village Justice for the Village of West Haverstraw in 2008 and re-elected to a second term in 2012.  He has served as an Acting Town Justice for the Towns of Stony Point and Clarkstown, as an adjunct Professor at Dominican College and as an Administrative Law Judge with the New York City Department of Finance.  He has also served as a real property referee in New York State Supreme Court and is a former Special Prosecutor for the Towns of Haverstraw and Stony Point and the Villages of Grand View and Chestnut Ridge.

 

Judge Russo currently sits in as a Rockland County Court Judge having been elected to a ten-year term in 2016.  He handles major felony cases and ran the Rockland County Felony Drug Court for seven years.

 

He has been married to his wife Geraldine for 40 years.  Kevin and Geraldine have a daughter Kaitlin Russo who along with her husband Derrick blessed Kevin and Kaitlin with two grandchildren, Brayden and Declan.