My Meandering Path to the Bench, 0918 COBJ, Vol. 47, No. 8 Pg. 14
| Author | KAREN M.ASHBY, J. |
| Position | Vol. 47, 8 [Page 14] |
August, 2018
YOU BE THE JUDGE
KAREN M.ASHBY, J.
This series explores what it means to he a judge or justice at various levels of the state court system. Authors share their personal journey to the bench and help others navigate their way to a judgeship.
I had no childhood dream of becoming an attorney or a judge. And when I became an attorney, I had no aspirations to sit on the bench. One could describe my path to the bench as meandering. Perhaps a more accurate description of my path would be an evolution.
I went to law school with one goal: to be a criminal defense attorney. Frankly, as I began my legal career, I saw judges as part of a system that I needed to navigate through, over, and around. But over time, several experiences in my career shaped a different view of the judicial role and my desire, ultimately, to apply to the bench. The experiences that most significantly influenced me were my two years clerking for Judge Leonard Plank in Denver District Court (before he later joined the Court of Appeals himself) and my growing understanding that, as an advocate, I could certainly influence, but did not control, the decision-making that could mean the difference between freedom or prison, having a relationship with one's child or not, or who prevailed in a civil dispute.
In this article, I describe my family's narrative and how my perception of judges and "judging" evolved over the course of my career, what a "day in the life" of an appellate judge looks like as compared to that of a trial judge, and the application process for the Court of Appeals.
A Family History of Forging New Paths
I was born to a family of "firsts." My father, a Tuskegee Airman, was the first African-American pilot to retire from a commercial airline. As the only African-American officer stationed at his base in Cambridge shire, England, he and my mother faced daily challenges on and off the base. My mother was valedictorian of her high school class in Helen Keller's hometown of Tuscumbia, Alabama. In 1960, after overcoming resistance from realtors and homeowners, and threatening lawsuits, we were the first Black family to purchase a home in Rye Beach, New Hampshire. Though neither of my parents had the opportunity to attend college, they knew the value of education. Even so, though I was the youngest child in our family, I was the first among my siblings to graduate from high school and the first in our family to attend and graduate from college. While I did not purposely seek out opportunities to do so, I knew that forging new paths was often, intentionally or not, part of what we did and who we were. My path to the bench became another example.
When I went to college, my plan was to major in chemistry and have a career as a forensic chemist. In my sophomore year, my plan hit a life-changing bump during my first semester of organic chemistry. Not only was I no longer enamored of the idea of a career as a chemist (I didn't particularly like it), but I also realized that I would not succeed as a chemistry major because I wasn't very good at it (it was my lowest grade in college). Upon graduating with my BA in Spanish and no idea of what to do next, I headed to England (where I was born and have dual citizenship) to ponder my next steps. Realizing that the common thread running through my various interests (forensic sciences, correctional institutions, police-community relations) was criminal law, I took the LSAT in London and applied to law schools while waiting tables in Oxford. It was this point in my career that I was most clearly focused: I was going to law school specifically to become a criminal defense attorney.
During law school, I clerked for Leonard Plank, then a Denver District Court judge, and went to night school for die last two years. Although I was working for a judge whom I highly respected, and who would shape many things about my career, at that time I had no interest in becoming a judge. But my plan to be a criminal defense lawyer was on track. I was hired as an attorney for the Denver trial office of the Colorado Public Defender's Office and loved it. But after five years I was ready to open my own solo practice. I loved practicing criminal defense but began to consider how I could make a difference by making decisions about what I thought was the...
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