She never got to be a civil rights attorney. Instead, she landed an internship with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District during her second year at Columbia Law School.

“I hated criminal law in law school, but come second year, I got that internship at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and it was the greatest experience. I was so excited to get there and see these cases that I would get there at 7:30 in the morning. I’m telling you — life changing. I ended up doing nothing but criminal law after that.”

Irizarry explained that part of the reason that she wanted to go into civil rights was a distrust of law enforcement that she said was natural for even law-abiding families living in minority districts. Upon working side-by-side with prosecutors, she saw a different side of the law.

“I saw really ethical people who cared,” Irizarry said. “People who cared about justice and not just about convicting at all costs. They really took to heart their position as quasi-judicial officers. That changed my impression.”

Irizarry has spent her nearly 40-year career on the criminal side of the law. She worked as an assistant district attorney in the Bronx and Manhattan from 1979 until 1995 when she was appointed to the NYC Criminal Court by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. In 1997, she became acting justice on the Court of Claims in Brooklyn and then Manhattan until 2002. She then ran as a Republican for Attorney General in 2002 and lost, but went on to be nominated for the federal court in 2003 by President George W. Bush and was confirmed in 2004.

Irizarry was named chief judge of the court during a ceremony on April 15, 2016. Today, she uses her role as chief judge to advocate to try to get more minorities into the court as practicing attorneys.

“We’ve done better with women attorneys appearing in federal court, but not so good with minority attorneys appearing in federal court,” she told the members of the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association on Friday. “I don’t understand the reason for it. I go a lot of different bar events and I’m always plugging it, asking why people aren’t getting themselves into federal court and I get the standard answer of, ‘Oh federal court scares me.’”

That answer doesn’t fly with Irizarry, who tells attorneys that they need to toughen up. She explained that with experience practicing at the federal court becomes second nature. She warned that doesn’t mean that attorneys will be coddled.

“The first time I got yelled at,” Irizarry reminisced. “It was during a suppression hearing. A guy had been arrested with a gun in his waistband. I asked the officer if the defendant made a statement when he arrested him. He said, ‘No.’ But when we got to trial it was one of the first things out of his mouth. The judge said, ‘Stop. Stop. What the hell are you doing? You lied to me .’ I wanted to die, but I learned a lesson.”

Sara Gozo, president of the BWBA, said that walking into the federal court that day made her think back to the days when she wasn’t as familiar with the court and echoed Irizarry’s statements that attorneys need to face their fears over federal court.

“Just walking through Columbus Park made me think back to what things were like when I first started,” Gozo said. “Now certain things are so familiar and comfortable, but they weren’t always that way. At one point, this building was totally unfamiliar to me, but once you start having experiences, then all of a sudden it becomes second nature.”

The BWBA hosts regular Lunch With a Judge events. Its next one will be with Justice Katherine A. Levine in the 11th floor boardroom of the Kings County Supreme Court at 1 p.m. on May 23rd.

The BWBA will host two Continuing Legal Education seminars before that — the first on immigration law on May 9, and another titled “The Anatomy of a Trial” on May 17. On June 15, the BWBA will host its annual awards dinner where Hon. Nancy Sunshine and Lisa Schreibersdorf will be honored.

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