Terrier Volume 76, Number 1 - Spring 2012 | Page 6

2 0 1 2 Sp r i n g C o mm e n c e m e n t

2 0 1 2 Sp r i n g C o mm e n c e m e n t

Judge Margo K. Brodie Holds Court for
Spring Graduation

W

hen Federal Court Judge Margo K.
Brodie ’88 came to St. Francis

College at the age of 16, she didn’t
know a lot about Brooklyn or even the United
States. But, growing up in Antigua she did
know that she wanted to be a lawyer and that
her options in Antigua were limited.
“My father was living here in Brooklyn
in East New York. I visited him when I was
15, it was the first time I had visited the
United States,” said Judge Brodie. “He knew
someone who had graduated from St. Francis
College so he enrolled me there. The first
day, he took me to school on the subway, and
showed me how to ride the subway and how
to get from his home in East New York to
St. Francis College by taking the A train
from Euclid Avenue to Jay Street.
“Imagine being 16 years old and coming
to a new country where you know absolutely
no one?” asked Brodie. “Being at St. Francis
St. Francis
awarded honorary
degrees to Karen
Brooks Hopkins,
President of the
Brooklyn Academy
of Music, and
Joseph V. Melillo,
Executive
Producer of the
Brooklyn Academy
of Music.

College, which is a
very small college,
did a lot for me.
The environment
itself made it very
easy for me to
adjust; it made it
easy for me to
make friends.
My best friend,
Thelma Davies, is
someone I met in one of my classes at
St. Francis College. Most of my friends today
are people that I met in my first few years at
St. Francis College. The college played a very
important role in my life.”
Brodie worked during much of the time she
attended St. Francis; full time during her last
two years, so she didn’t have the opportunity
to take part in many extra-curricular activities
on campus. What she did have though, was
the attention of Professors Arthur Hughes
and Frank Sorrentino.
“Dr. Sorrentino understood that I could
not participate in other school activities as
much as I wanted to but he worked with me
to get my writing requirement done, to meet
with him if I needed to do so for any reason
and to assist me as necessary with my classes.
He was a great mentor during my last two
years in college.”
“She was a superb student who had a good
sense of where she wanted to go,” said

C o mm e n c e m e n t M a s s

His Excellency, Most Revered Octavio Cisneros Auxiliary Bishop, Diocese of Brooklyn
celebrated a baccalaureate mass at St. Charles Borromeo Church on May 14.

Contin u ed From Pre vious pag e

in June 2011. Less than a year later on
February 27, the U.S. Senate confirmed the
nomination. Two days later she was appointed
by President Obama, making her the first
sitting African American federal judge born
in a Caribbean nation.
The transition was a quick one. After just a
few weeks on the job, Brodie had more than
400 cases on her docket, had already presided
over a trial and had decided several motions.
“Because of my background as a litigator,
where I am used to advocating before the
court, I thought that when I presided over my

U.S. District Court Judge Margo K. Brodie ’88
delivered the Commencement Address during
Spring Graduation at the Brooklyn Academy of
Music on May 15.

Professor Sorrentino, whose guidance helped
her get accepted to the University of
Pennsylvania Law School. “She was always
very appreciative for everything she received
and was always willing to assist her fellow
students who wanted to follow her in law.”
Helping others with the law is a common
thread during Brodie’s career. While working
for the U.S. Attorney’s office she was accepted
into a program sponsored by the Office of
Overseas Prosecutorial Development and
Training that sent her to Nigeria to help train
prosecutors and law enforcement officers.
From there she was asked to conduct legal
training on various topics including corruption and human trafficking in several other
African countries including Tanzania,
Lesotho and Swaziland, but also in other
parts of the world like Jordan, Bosnia and
Herzegovina as well as Trinidad and the
Bahamas in the Caribbean.
“The fact that I was born in a different
country helped me recognize that America has
a lot to offer in terms of training then you can
get in so many other places,” said Brodie, who
became a U.S. citizen in 1996. She says she
may continue to take part in international
programs for judges but right now she wants
to concentrate on learning her new job on the
federal bench as a United States District Judge.
The path to her seat in the Eastern District
began more than a year ago when she was
interviewed by the senior Senator from New
York, Charles Schumer, after she interviewed
with his selection committee. Based on the
Senator’s recommendation, President Barack
Obama nominated Brodie for the position

first trial I would have had a difficult time
adjusting to my role as the judge but surprisingly I did not” said Judge Brodie. “I
reminded myself it was no longer my
responsibility to try the case, only to decide
it, and at the end I only needed to ask one
or two questions.”
Brodie says she plans to be on the bench
in the Eastern District for many years.
“I wanted to do this job because I believe
it is the ultimate public service job. I get to
serve the people of the Eastern District of
New York daily. I like the fact that the docket
is so varied and you get a chance to really

interact with litigants. I think it’s going to be
challenging, interesting and exciting and
I am looking forward to doing this for the
rest of my career.”
With her future laid out, Brodie credits
a large part of her success to her past at
St. Francis. “It did a lot for my confidence
certainly and it helped me to grow into the
person that I am today.”
“I don’t know what the experience would
have been had my father put me in a larger
university where I would have gotten lost
and maybe not had the support that I had at
St. Francis College.”

Profile of a Terrier

Sandra Schron ’95
Vice President of Production, USA Network, Cloo and Universal HD
Sandra Schron ’95 has always had her eye on ѡ