PAULA MARIE SUSI of the EDNY -- Honored Because She Gets It

We women are like volcanoes. When we offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.
Ursula K. Le Guin, American author

Paula Marie Susi is one of those 25-year veterans on the front lines of federal court in Brooklyn.  Paula is all about change.  You wouldn't know it.  She married the first man she fell in love with at 17 and has kept the same job for 25 years, working for the same court, the same kinds of cases, the same kinds of judges.  But through all that sameness runs a fiery current of human truth.  Paula has permanently altered her landscape.   She talks to our clients like they're human.  And they listen to her. 

That's because Paula Susi gets it.

Paula Susi has been a court clerk in federal court for 30 years.  We write about her today because she was recently honored at a charity event for her public service.  Click here for remarks delivered by Federal Defender Michael Padden and Criminal Justice Act Lawyer Susan Kellman.  They tell a story of how Paula basically disarmed an alleged hijacker who took a microphone up as a weapon in her courtroom.  There were a lot of ways Paula could have responded to that situation.  She chose the one that was both compassionate, and worked  The refrain of those remarks, as you might have guessed, is that Paula Marie Susi gets it.   

The event was to benefit a local Brooklyn-to-Alaska outward bound-type program.  You know, taking underprivileged urban kids to fight bears in Alaska.  Where they learn there's no "I" in Team while building rope bridges over raging rapids.  Where all they have to eat is what they can pack.  Click here to learn more.  Even better, give them money.  It's a true boots-on-the-ground nonprofit. 

We support the Brooklyn-to-Alaska Project for the same reasons it honored Paula Susi:  no change is going to come to the justice system unless we support people who get it.      

Kudos to Paula, that EDNY's Quiet Volcano of Change.

An Early Believer in Rehabilitation, David G. Trager, dies at 73.

Another legal legend passed this year.  David G. Trager was a District Judge on the Eastern District of New York Bench.  CLAWSTERS are invited to contribute to the David G. Trager Public Policy Symposium Fund, at the Brooklyn Law School.  We will pool all checks from CLAW members (checks made payable to David G. Trager Public Policy Symposium Fund) through Paula Susi, and present our donation on behalf of CLAW at the following event:

BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL
celebrates the life of Judge David G. Trager
1937–2011
April 27, 2011, 4:00 pm
Brooklyn Law School
250 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201
To RSVP, please go to www.brooklaw.edu/tragermemorial.

CLAW's contribution will be accompanyed by the following letter:

To the Family of the Hon. David G. Trager:

We write on behalf of an organization called CLAW, an association of women who work in the criminal justice system in the Eastern District of New York. Our collective interest is in the treatment of families in the court system. Many of us spent our formative years in Judge Trager's courtroom.

We took up a modest collection to donate to the David G. Trager Public Policy Symposium fund. The donation was inspired in part by the moving tributes paid at Judge Trager's synogogue. One story, told by the Judge's son, Josiah, was about turtles. According to Josiah, Judge Trager was the self-appointed Turtle Warden of East Hampton. He helped lost sea turtles across the Montauk Highway. But he didn't just pick them up and take them across the road. Instead, he pulled over his car and stopped traffic. In both directions. So the turtle could cross the road.  This struck us as a brilliant example of Judge Trager's belief that self-determination could solve many of the vexing questions posed by the criminal justice system. At least that is our interpretation of why Judge Trager didn't carry the turtle across the road himself. From our experiences in his courtroom, we developed great respect for Judge Trager's belief in rehabilitation as a primary purpose of punishment. He was ahead of his time in this respect.

We hope this fund encourages young law students to learn more about Judge Trager's perspective.

With Sincere Condolences,
Criminal Lawyers Association of Women