Juan Merchan

Juan Manuel Merchan (born 1962/1963) is an American judge and former prosecutor currently serving as an acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court in New York County (Manhattan). Early life and education Merchan was born in Bogotá, Colombia. He immigrated to New York City when he was six years old, growing up in Jackson Heights, Queens, as the youngest of six children. His father had been a military officer in Colombia. Merchan studied business at Baruch College in Manhattan, graduating in 1990, and earned his Juris Doctor from Hofstra University School of Law on Long Island in 1994. He was the first member of his family to go to college. Career as prosecutor In 1994, Merchan began his career as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. He worked in both the office's Trial Division and its Investigations Division, prosecuting financial frauds and other cases. From 1999 to 2006, he worked for the New York State Attorney General's office, first as Deputy Attorney General in-Charge, Nassau County Region (1999-2001), then as Assistant Attorney General in-Charge of Affirmative Litigation for Nassau and Suffolk Counties (2003-2006), and then as Assistant Attorney General in-Charge Nassau County Region (2003-2006). Career as judge Merchan became a judge in 2006, when New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed him to the New York City Family Court, Bronx County. He remained in that role until 2009.