Tanya Acker
From
the top of her class at Yale Law School to working with the Supreme
Court and President Clinton as an avid fighter for women and minorities,
Tanya Acker now shares her legal mind starring on the Emmy nominated CBS hit show HOT BENCH.
Always
engaging and stirring on camera, Tanya has been featured as a guest on
"Good Morning America," "Entertainment Tonight," "Wendy Williams,"
"The Talk," "The Insider," "CNN Reports," "Anderson Cooper 360,"
"Extra," "Your World with Neil Cavuto," "CNBC Reports," and more.
Created
by Judge Judy, HOT BENCH adds a new twist to the court genre, with the
first-ever three judge panel that includes Tanya Acker, Patricia DiMango
and Michael Corriero. HOT BENCH takes viewers inside the courtroom and
into their chambers as they deliberate, making it one of the most
popular programs on day time TV.
Acker
received her B.A. degree at Howard University before attending Yale Law
where she represented low-income women in family law cases and served
as a teaching assistant in Constitutional Law and Civil Procedure
courses. She has worked at the Office of White House Counsel, the Civil
Rights Division in the United States Department of Justice and various
private law firms. Her work in private law includes working with
President Clinton's personal lawyers, as well as on the preparation of
Congressional testimony for pending product liability legislation and
First Amendment issues.
After
graduating from Yale, Acker served as a judicial law clerk to the
Honorable Dorothy Wright Nelson on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals. Her duties during that appointment included advising and making
recommendations to Ninth Circuit judges about rulings on a broad
variety of cases and preparing Judge Nelson for oral arguments on
matters before the Court. After
her clerkship, the Office of the Solicitor General in the U.S.
Department of Justice awarded her a Bristow Fellowship. As a Bristow
Fellow, her duties included drafting Supreme Court briefs.
In
private practice, Acker's legal work spanned a broad variety of matters
from civil litigation involving public and private entities, to various
constitutional cases, to providing business counseling and advice. She
also maintained a commitment to pro bono work, receiving the
ACLU's First Amendment Award for her successful representation of the
homeless in a case against the City of Santa Barbara.
As
an influential community leader and advocate, Acker serves on the
boards of Public Counsel, the nation's largest provider of free legal
services; the Western Justice Center, which promotes alternative dispute
resolution; the Western Los Angeles County Council of the Boy Scouts of
America (the WLACC does not discriminate on any basis); and Rainbow
Services, which provides shelter services to victims of domestic
violence.
