What is the impact of your life on others? by Judge Gerald Bruce Lee
Will they know that you were here?
Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play major league baseball summed up his life in the following words: “A life is not important except in its impact on others.”
Once I passed the 50 plus threshold in life, I realized that I have lived more life than I have to live. For me, this is the time for introspection and a time to act on those things that I have always wanted to do during my brief time here. I find growing inside me a desire to do as much as I can for as many people as I can in the remaining days of my life. I feel my own mortality.
I feel the life clock ticking.
The road less traveled.
The road from Southeast Washington, D.C. to the United States District Court in Alexandria, Virginia was not a straight one for me.
A week ago, The Washington Post devoted much of its print space to the senseless and brutal deaths of four teenagers who were victims of a drive by shooting. The Post reported that the cause of this tragedy was a dispute between two young men over a gold colored bracelet. The dispute occurred in a neighborhood of which I am familiar. I did not grow up there, but I worked there for a couple of years in high school. This news troubled me. It is a reminder that we can never truly know our destiny.
Who would have thought it? I am certain that if you met me at age 16, you would have predicted that the tall slender young man with the baseball cap cocked to the side and the wrap around sunglasses would go to court one day, maybe in an orange jumpsuit, and maybe he would need a lawyer to defend him, but you would not have predicted that he would one day be in court in a black robe on the other side of the room.
What can we do? SPEAK, LISTEN, and be a ROLE MODEL.
What can we do? We can mentor. We can act as role models. We can share enriching positive experiences with young people and offer them hope. I started talking to students when I was in law school. While in private practice I always participated in the Alexandria Bar Association Law Day Program at T.C. Williams High School. I was a frequent speaker for The Close Up Foundation and spoke at a variety of community events. As a judge, I have made a deliberate decision to bring students and community members to court to observe, participate in mock trials, moot court, and to discuss careers in the law.
What kinds of jobs prepare you to become a federal judge?
The path to the bench is not what you would think or expect.
When I talk to students who visit my courtroom or when I visit schools or community groups to talk about leadership and service, I usually begin by warming them up with questions. I ask the students to tell me the kinds of jobs they think might prepare a person to become a federal judge. Once the students warm-up, they tell me that they think being a private investigator, police officer, teacher, psychologist, or business person will prepare one to become a judge. After reflecting on their answers, I tell them that those are really good guesses. I then ask them: “What about a job as a farm worker picking tobacco? What about a job sweeping the streets in the public housing projects of Southeast Washington? What about a job as a janitor mopping floors and pulling trash in federal government office buildings? What about a job as a radio producer on WAMU FM radio station? What about a job as a college newspaper editor? What about a job as a college professor? What about a job as a law clerk in a law firm?”
The truth is, I have held all of these jobs in my career and every one of them has prepared me to become a good lawyer and a good judge. My job as a farm worker taught me the importance of a work ethic and an appreciation of people who put in an honest days work for an honest days pay. My job as a janitor taught me integrity because I did not steal. These two jobs taught me about people who pursue the American dream and how hard they are willing to work to ensure that their children secure an education and opportunity to compete in our society. My other jobs taught me about the law and about life.
As a 50-something year old lawyer and judge, I recognize that I can help empower the next-generation of lawyers.
Choose to serve.
We can choose to serve and help young lawyers of the Northern Virginia Black Attorneys Association (NOVABAA), the Fairfax Bar Association, the Hispanic Bar Association, and the Asian American Bar Association of Virginia.
On March 6, 2010, these bar associations hosted the Colors of Justice Program in my courtroom in Alexandria. The young lawyers brought a diverse group of 70 students from the Fairfax County Public Schools College Partners Program to our federal courthouse. We put on a mock jury trial for them and asked the students to act as jurors. We divided the students into six groups. Judges and lawyers convened six juries to deliberate and arrive at a verdict. We shared stories of our paths to becoming a lawyer or judge. We provided the students with lunch and a
T-shirt. We had a law school admissions counselor describe to the students how one prepares to enter law school. To conclude, we held a judges panel where Judges Leonie Brinkema, Jeri Somers, Ivan Davis, Nolan Dawkins, Stanley Klein and I shared our distinct stories with them.
The Program was spearheaded by Patricia Donkor, an Alexandria Assistant Public Defender. The students had an exemplary role model in Patricia because she was a participant in the College Partners Program when she was a student at Mount Vernon High School. Patricia grew up in the Mount Vernon area, attended Virginia Tech University, and George Mason University Law School. Patricia and NOVABAA led a diverse group of 20 young lawyers in this Saturday effort. The reason this is important is because young people are looking for guidance, positive role models, and evidence of success.
Like many of you, I have passions and one of them is to help empower young people to pursue their dreams and to encourage women and minorities to enter our profession. I get great joy and satisfaction out of my work with law student judicial interns, helping to place students in state and federal judicial clerkships and internships, participating in continuing legal education, and street law programs.
Over the years I have worked with over 100 law student interns. Many of my former law student interns are now practicing lawyers, law firm partners, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and more than 40 have secured state and federal judicial clerkships. Last year I had the honor of speaking at the investiture of Judge Pamela O’Berry Evans, Chesterfield County General District Court, and a former GBL judicial intern from my alma mater, The Washington College of Law at The American University. These moments of watching young people excel in life are humbling.
In any given year, I am on the ground working with young lawyers and students in the Kamp Kappa Street Law Program, the Colors of Justice program, the Loudoun County Bar Association Leadership in the Law Camp, the National Bar Association John Crump Law Camp at Howard University Law School and a variety of continuing education programs.
I believe that to whom much is given, much is expected. Each of us has the capacity to help empower others. I have been blessed. While I am here, I intend to do as much as I can. Someone once said, “Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.”
What are you doing? What impact will your life have on others? Will it matter that you were here?
© 2010 Judge Gerald Bruce Lee
Hon. Gerald Bruce Lee serves as United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia. He is a mentor/role-model, motivational and educational speaker, teacher, and a leader of Kamp Kappa, a summer camp sponsored by the Alexandria-Fairfax Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. Judge Lee is the recipient of the Lodestar Award from The American University, Washington College of Law; the Distinguished Service Award from the Virginia Commission on Women and Minorities in the Legal Profession; the Fairfax County Human Rights Commission Human Award; Asian American Bar Association Award; the Medger Evers Award from the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice; "Ollie May Cooper" Award from the Washington Bar Association; and the Oliver Hill/Samuel E. Tucker Lifetime Achievement Award from the Old Dominion Bar Association.
Updated: Apr 27, 2010
