Katharine Sweeney Hayden is a federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. She joined the court in 1997 after being nominated by President Bill Clinton. She is serving the count on senior status. A native of New York, Hayden graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with her bachelor's degree in 1963 and later graduated from Seton Hall University with her Master's degree in 1971 and her J.D. in 1975.
She served as a judicial law clerk to New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert L. Clifford, and then served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey before entering private practice. She was appointed to the New Jersey Superior Court in 1991.
Judge Hayden currently serves as an Adviser on the Restatement of the Law, Children and the Law project.