Jerry Sheindlin

Jerry Sheindlin was born on November 19, 1933, in New York City, USA. A native of the Bronx, he joined the Navy in 1951 during the Korean War, and his life in the Navy turned him around. He attended Long Island University, and was initially on probation as he had low high school grades. But in the university, he excelled and earned ‘A’s, and completed his studies in two and a half years. He also attended Brooklyn Law School and received his J.D. in 1959.

In 1977, he married writer and actress Judy, who is popularly known as ‘Judge Judy’, named after her court TV series. It was a second marriage for both of them. They divorced in 1990 and remarried in 1991. Sheindlin has three children and two step-children—Gregory, Jonathan, Nicole, Jamie, and Adam. He also has 13 grandchildren. While Jonathan A. Sheindlin is a retinal surgeon, Gregory, Adam, and Nicole are lawyers.

A professionally qualified lawyer, Jerry Sheindlin was a partner in the law firm Adlerberg & Sheindlin for 22 years as a defense attorney, and mostly handled criminal cases. In 1980, he was appointed a United States Administrative Law Judge, and he held the post for two years. In 1983, he was appointed a Criminal Court Judge in the City of New York by then-Mayor Ed Koch, who was the ex-jurist of ‘The People's Court’.

Judge Sheindlin was then promoted to the New York State Supreme Court in 1986, a post which he held till he retired in 1999. During his judicial career, he authored more than 64 published judicial opinions, and wrote a number of legal articles and two books, including ‘Blood Trail’ and ‘Genetic Fingerprinting.’

He joined the TV program ‘The People's Court’ as the presiding judge in September 1999 in its third season, and brought with him 40 years of legal experience. It is an American arbitration-based reality court show and ranks as the second-longest running courtroom series in history. Coming to his other TV appearances, in 1981, Jerry Sheindlin had been featured in ‘Entertainment Tonight,’ a syndicated entertainment newsmagazine, launched the same year. He had also appeared in ‘Biography’, a documentary television series, in 1987.