Hon. Rina Gurung was appointed as a Housing Court Judge of the Housing Part of the Civil Court of the City of New York in March 2023. Judge Gurung is the first judge of Nepali heritage to be appointed or elected in the State of New York.
Judge Gurung currently presides over residential landlord-tenant matters in the Queens Housing Court. Prior to her appointment, she served as a Court Attorney. Before joining as a Court Attorney, Judge Gurung was a tenants’ rights attorney at Legal Services NYC, and earlier, an Equal Justice Works VISTA Legal Fellow at the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center.
She also serves as a Commissioner of the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission (“Commission”) of the New York Court System, to which she was appointed in March 2023, and she co-chairs the Commission’s Adopt-A-School program.
Judge Gurung is deeply committed to public service and maintains strong ties to her community. She served on the Board of Directors of Adhikaar—a women-led nonprofit workers’ center dedicated to improving the lives of Nepali-speaking communities in the United States—through May 2025. She also served as Adhikaar’s Board Chair from June 2016 to March 2023.
Judge Gurung received her Juris Doctor from New England Law | Boston and her Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Queens College, City University of New York.
Hon. Rina Gurung is a Moderator for the How to Lateral: Building a Transferable, and Marketable, Skill Set program.