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Why do I want to be YOUR Judge?
Since lawyers have a duty to know the law, I believe that knowing the law is not enough because when a judge makes a decision, it may reach beyond the courtroom. To be a Judge requires a special type of wisdom, gained only through experience beyond the practice of law, which gives a judge and the judge’s decision insight into the ramifications that may result beyond the person's standing before the court.
Today, Americans realize that “business as usual” will not provide the success we need in order to provide a better world for the next generation. Even in our Courts, the past attitudes that generated simplistic answers to complex problems are not good enough. Citizens, including those of Allegheny County expect more and deserve more from government, including their judges.
Today, citizens want a judge who is truly independent! I believe that the people now understand that a judge needs to be not only independent, but courageous, since the two values are necessary to protect the interests of everyday ordinary people who are being challenged by the powerful.
Why do I think that I can address these core values? First, graduating from Marquette University and as the Distinguished Student of my class at Duquesne University Law School, my educational roots gave me a special respect not only for the law, but also for the duty to look beyond the law in order to find solutions to the legal problems. In doing so, I could better protect the integrity of a decision reached. It is this type of attitude that has blessed me with a sense that Law may be a tool, but it is wisdom that is the key to public service. This is why I chose private practice as opposed to being part of the government or being a member of a law firm. I have remained independent!
I have practiced law in State, Federal and the Bankruptcy Court. My convictions are most concerned with ordinary and everyday people; ordinary people who want to be protected from crime, who want their children and the elderly protected, and who are trying to protect against foreclosure and financial ruin. It is the ordinary people who deserve a level playing field. As a Judge, I am dedicated to providing one; for the law needs to work for the little people and not just the rich and the powerful.
In order to give me the wisdom to be a judge, I believed that my career should be balanced with experience beyond the law. This experience, wisdom, includes that about children and education, which I acquired in part from developing the Pennsylvania Tuition Account Program (TAP), which was the most innovative program of its time in showing ordinary people how they were going to pay for college for their children in an easy and safe way. This program gave rise to the entire idea of savings as are now permitted by the Internal Revenue Service.
In order to give me the wisdom to be a judge, I believed that my career would be balanced further by remaining to be an integral part of a community’s fabric. This would give me wisdom about protecting a neighborhood, protecting our elderly, and at the same time, would give me a further appreciation of what it meant to run a small enterprise and the issues that ordinary people face when they are making a payroll instead of a paycheck. As part of a family that owns a little store, called the Groceria Italiana, in Bloomfield, I have seen what it means to work hard to protect the ideals of the neighborhood, its safety, its cleanliness, and what it means for ordinary people to work hard just to get by, day by day. This experience teaches me other things, such as what level of respect average people deserve and other things that a judge should understand when sitting on the bench. Yes, where doing a common job uncommonly well for the benefit of ordinary people was a special reward all onto itself.
Whether it is my current legal practice, my dealings beyond the traditional notions of practicing law, or my family’s business, the bottom line is that as your judge, I should never forget that I could be before a judge, just as the person standing before the bench. Of course, a good judge needs courage, but a good judge needs humility since the law that one serves is only as good as the persons that are dedicated to its protection and the people that the law was meant to protect.
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