Local Alum Confirmed as Brooklyn’s Next Judge

February 28, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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St. Francis Grad and Brooklyn Federal Prosecutor Is Latest Obama Selection in Downtown Area

By Ryan Thompson

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — President Barack Obama’s local pick to become the next Brooklyn federal court judge has been confirmed this week, continuing a minor trend in the area.

The United States Senate confirmed Margo Kitsy Brodie by a vote of 86-2 on Monday. The 45-year-old federal prosecutor was nominated by Obama last summer.

She is a graduate of St. Francis College on Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights and is currently deputy chief of the Criminal Division in the Eastern District U.S. Attorney’s Office on Cadman Plaza East.

This is not the first time that Obama has set his eyes on Downtown Brooklyn and its surrounding neighborhoods while looking for federal judges.

Obama chose Dr. William F. Kuntz II, of Cobble Hill, also for the Brooklyn federal court; Kuntz was sworn in last year. And a year before that, Obama nominated another Cobble Hill resident and former federal prosecutor to the judiciary of the Second Circuit court, which has appellate jurisdiction over the Brooklyn federal court.

Raymond Lohier, who was also a Community Board 6 officer, is now a judge of that circuit court, having replaced Hon. Sonia Sotomayor when she was elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Brodie has been a Brooklyn federal prosecutor since 1999 and deputy chief since 2010. She previously served as counselor to the Criminal Division from 2009 to 2010, chief of the General Crimes Section from 2007 to 2009, and deputy chief of the General Crimes Section from 2006 to 2007. President Barack Obama seems to have his eye on Downtown Brooklyn and its surrounding neighborhoods. In addition to Brodie, he recently appointed two Cobble Hill residents to the federal judiciary.

Prior to becoming a federal prosecutor, Brodie worked at the law firm of Carter, Ledyard & Millburn from 1994 to 1999 and at the New York City Law Department from 1991 to 1994.

She received her law degree in 1991 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and graduated magna cum laude from St. Francis College in 1988.

Brodie, a native of Antigua, is currently awaiting her judicial commission.

The confirmation leaves one seat open at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, which sits in Downtown Brooklyn beside Cadman Plaza Park. The White House has not named its nominee.