In putting together a collection of things as a gift to my new daughter-in-law, I ran across two speeches I've given recently that seem - given the latest issues regarding law and order and immigration - worth revisiting.
[My CJA Award]
When he called to tell me about this award, Judge Murray suggested I think about a pivotal moment that shaped my legal career and for the life of me I couldn’t narrow it down to just one aha lawyer moment. There are so many. Over the years I have been involved in just about every major case, have been the nemesis of government agencies, and made a name for myself as a pain.
I don’t ascribe to the grand design, that things happen necessarily for a reason but I do think that life events and experiences shape you and reform you into your ultimate version.
My pivotal moments don’t start with me becoming a lawyer. I didn’t graduate from law school until I was 40 and how I got there depended on a chain of events.
• I came to the states when I was 40 days old, lucky to have been born in Puerto Rico as opposed to Honduras;
• Because I was a “troubled” teenager, my mother took us out of Jersey moved our family back to Puerto Rico;
• I escaped PR and joined the service at 17;
• the GI Bill gave me, a two-time high school dropout, educational opportunities;
• I came out of the service, continued my studies got wrapped up in the 60s revolution, became a journalist and eventually joined Legal Services as a paralegal.
Those are all my grand pivots but none as important as me becoming a lawyer and then earning a spot in the top-tier practice that is federal law.
It’s not just luck - I have worked hard to get where I am - but it plays a pretty big part. Even doing criminal work; that hadn’t been my intention. I spent my legal services time and my law school apprenticeships in civil law doing Public Benefits work.
Fresh out of law school I was already hitting burnout listening to civil lawyers and sitting in pointless depositions. I had teamed up with my Legal Services mentor Arthur Madden. I got sucked into criminal law when he sent me to cover a few things for him. It was exciting and interesting and seemed like much more vital work.
My partnership with him gave me street cred. My Spanish language skills all of a sudden became an asset and, yes, luck, I jumped to the front of the line.
The majority of the work I do is federal and over the years I've reached an equilibrium here. I do my job. I do my best. I'm conscientious. I’m respectful but I am not a pushover. I try to be as honest as I can be. I try to be all of those things because I am my stock in trade and because what we do - all of us, from the judges down to the file clerks - is important.
I try to stay real. I can be pathologically candid. Some times folks don't like what I say. Some years ago I was quoted in the newspaper making some remarks critical of the system. An AUSA’s husband read the article. Won’t he get in trouble for that? Had I lost my mind saying that? "Oh that's just Dom," she told him.
These days, I make it a habit that when I enter our federal courthouse I greet the gatekeepers there with a "power to the people" fist-raised salute.
Now, these guys are not Bernie Bros. They are ex-Troopers and all sorts of law enforcement folk. But I don't get that they're put off by that. They laugh. They probably welcome the breakup of monotony. Or maybe they just think "well, that just Dom".
It might just be indulgence but I don't think so. The real reason, I think, is that in the many years I've been practicing here they've come to know me; they know what I stand for and that for all my shenanigans, froth, labels, antics, I am striving to respectfully do the best I can do to make the system work AND at the same time serve my clients.
Regardless, I don't do it for them. I don't do it to provide comic relief. Power to the people is an idea right there where it belongs. It's a reminder to myself why I became a lawyer. In a certain aspect, it tracks close to being self-deprecating - me, I have bought into this gig where by systemic design I am handicapped and fighting a very powerful machine; where all the odds are pitted against my clients. And it would be if I wasn't proud of the work that I do, if I didn’t feel that my clients need me to be there for them and that without us the system would be evermore grinding and merciless.
But that’s just Dom.
I couldn’t be prouder of working with our court. I love being here, practicing Top Gun level legal work with this caliber of people is itself an honor. This award is just the cherry on top.
Words cannot express how humbled and appreciative I am of this honor. I hope to continue to do justice to it.
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