Six candidates are on a holy quest for the black robe. They seek three seats on Lehigh County's Court of Common Pleas that will open up this year. Democrats Zach Cohen, Rashid Santiago and Maraleen Shields and Republicans Tom Caffrey, Tom Capehart and Dave Ritter are the candidates.
The courts of common pleas are the trial courts, both civil and criminal, in Pennsylvania. Judges are elected for 10-year terms. The salary this year is $188,292, and it automatically goes up each year with the consumer price index. When a judge's 10-year term is up, he or she can just stand for retention.
The candidates were all rated by the Lehigh County Bar Ass'n. Cohen, Shields, Caffrey and Capehart are all "highly recommended." Ritter got a "recommended" while Santiago was tagged with a "not recommended," basically because he failed to submit a sample of his legal writing for the bluebloods to scrutinize.
His dog ate it.
Fortunately, the aristocrats do not decide on who should sit on the bench. They'd love to take that burden from you and appoint their favorites. But fortunately, the people still elect judges.
I live in NorCo and have no say. But if the bluebloods can tell you who they like, so can a black Irishman.
Here are my three choices:
1) Maraleen Shields. - Not 'cuz she's black. Not 'cuz she's a woman. Not 'cuz she's bilingual. Not 'cuz she - like me- is a highly conditioned, well-trained athlete Because she's the leader of the pack. She stands head and shoulders above the other lawyers running in terms of raw ability. She's a shareholder at Fitzpatrick, Lentz and Bubba, one of the most elite law firms in the Lehigh Valley,. She double-majored in college, attended law school on a full scholarship,where she was a member of the Law Review. You only get that if you know what you're doing. She graduated magna cum laude.
Even more compelling than her professional and educational prowess is her personal background. He father died when she was in fourth grade,and she and her sister were raised by her mother in a small town outside of Pittsburgh. She came up hard. Instead of relying on handouts, she worked her way through college and emerged with a double major and no student debt.
She might be the best judicial candidate I've ever seen.
2) Tom Caffrey, Like Maraleen, Tom comes from a blue collar background in Allentown's first ward. His dad worked at General Electric while his mom was a seamstress. On Sundays, he attended Immaculate Conception Church. He still does. He graduated from Allentown Central Catholic, and after college at PSU and law school at Dickinson, he returned to the Lehigh Valley and has been practicing law for 36 years.
Unlike most lawyers, Caffrey has experience on both the civil and criminal side of the ledger. He is also an experienced municipal lawyer, and has served as Lehigh County Solicitor since May 2020.
3) Zac Cohen. - Like Caffrey, Zac is Allentown born and raised. Like Maraleen, he was a double major when he attended college. He's practiced as a trial lawyer for 15 years, handling both civil and criminal matters.
He's a second-time candidate. Many lawyers lose their first race but go on to win in their second try.
All three of these lawyers have done considerable pro bono work over the years.
I by no means am trashing the other three candidates. I am merely saying who I like.
20 comments:
What does it mean when you state that a lawyer is a member of "Law Review".. I know a lawyer who claims he was written up twice in "Law Review". Is that the same as being a member of Law Review?
Law Review is a publication by most law schools in which students, jurists and lawyers offer articles for publication. It is the best way for a law student to improve his skills at legal research and writing. Usually, only the school's top students participate. They might pick a specific case and write what is known as a case note. They could delve into other issues that are trending in the courts for a more substantive article. Generally, they write one case note and one larger article. It is no easy task, but generally speaking, the students who master this are usually the most sought after graduates. I have no idea what it means to be written up twicein Law Review. It could mean that two of his cases were picked up and the subject of case notes. It could mean he himself authored two articles.
I have seen Caffrey in action multiple times in a municipal setting. He has a fantastic understanding of the law. I observed him lose his composure once during a meeting when it wasn't called for, and that trait would concern me if he were a judge. I might vote for him though.
Vote straight Republican. By no means am I trashing the others running for Judge.
Yeah, hard pass on Shields.
Not only a carpetbagger to the Lehigh Valley, she's interned for extremist democrat politicians. If you want someone to help extreme democrat politicians defund the police locally and support other extremist policies, she's your person. But I'm willing to bet her views are still out of step with most in the Valley.
In addition, while she might have an impressive resume on paper, but she doesn't have the real-world experience that the other candidates have.
Shields is very impressive. I got a mailer where Capehart misspelled her name SHEilds, maybe to emphasize we need more qualified women on the bench. You forgot to mention she is Order of the Coif, a higher academic distinction than Law Review.
I'm an Independent, and my first of 2 choices is Tom Caffrey. He is (to my knowledge) the only candidate to have Judicial experience as he served as Lehigh's Chief Juvenile Court Master for over a Decade. He presided over these cases with fairness, integrity and impartiality. His decisions would affect the lives of not only the juvenile but also his/her family, the victim(s) and safety of the community. Master Caffrey offered his meaningful decisions with a high degree of personal compassion and conviction while administering a fair and just verdict. There should be more Tom Caffrey's on the bench.
I've never had any contact with
Maraleen Sheilds, directly or indirectly, (unfortunately) because based on your description, she seems like like a heck of a lawyer and Lehigh County would be honored to have her serve on the bench. I'm going to do more research and she just may be one of my choices.
We're fortunate, great candidates this time around.
We agree on Shields and Cohen, but my third is Tom Capehart. Good man, good lawyer and I think he'll make an outstanding judge.
Not a knock on Tom Caffrey though.
The Banker
When I went to my polling place during the primary, I encountered workers a outside distributing flyers. There was a woman handing out flyers for Tom Capehart. I was was considering voting for Capehart and Caffrey. Then, I overheard her say that she was at the January 6th insurrection. I asked her about it. She denied going inside the Capitol, but said that those who did enter, did nothing wrong. She sounded like a female Steve Lynch with all of her crazy conspiracy theories. I asked her what she would say to a Republican who doesn't support the actions of January 6th but was supporting her candidate. She replied that they aren't "true" Republicans and anyone with "half a brain" knows that the election was stolen. I then followed up with, "If elections are stolen, why are you campaigning? Won't your candidate's election be stolen?". Her reply: Trump is putting policies in place to make sure that doesn't happen again, and I am looking forward to March 6th, when Trump will be reinstated as President".
That's all I needed to hear from Capehart's poll worker, and to not vote for him. He obviously didn't use due-diligence and properly vet her.
Tom Caffrey is a strong and consistent Conservative Republican. He is my choice in the General election and he came in first place in the Primary election. He is best candidate to serve as Lehigh County's next judge.
Has anyone asked the candidates if they will remain on the County bench and not run or apply for other judicial positions if they win? Commitment to the local bench is important to me.
I have been practicing law in Lehigh County for over twenty years. I am voting for Cohen and Caffrey. While I'd like to see another woman on the bench to replace the two who created vacancies, what I have heard about Shields' conduct behind the scenes toward other candidates makes her a hard "NO" for me.
I may not vote for a third candidate.
Order of the Coif just means top 10% of your law school class, law review is more selective based on your 1L grades and writing ability.
I think Ritter will do better than expected, but think Shields, Cohen and Capehart will win. Capehart has now run twice, too.
Tom Caffrey is head and shoulders more qualified than any other candidate running. He has the demeanor, intelligence and character to be one heck of an outstanding judge.
Shields is a promoter of the radical "equity" movement.
She obviously has a strong political agenda, and will surely use her position on the bench to promote that agenda when possible. Judges shouldn't have agendas on the bench, and should rule based on the law passed by lawmakers. Her background and political involvement would make her better suited for a run for political office instead of judge.
And while she may be an excellent lawyer and did well in school, I would say there is still a lot of law that she's not familiar with. That broader experience comes with age, so I think her youth works against her in that regard.
Um she's been a practicing attorney since 2003, and obviously has the seasoning required to be a jurist. I see no indication of an agenda on her part, but do see one on yours.
How is she an athlete like you, Bernie? Is she a biker?
Must for republicans-democrats are ruining our country on all levels.
I pulled up the Lehigh civil case dockets to see how many cases the candidates have entered their appearances in. Note that some will be as co-counsel with one or more other attorneys, and I didn't sort those out.
Caffrey: 198
Capehart: 574 (lots of estates, some foreclosures)
Cohen: 205
Ritter: 5
Santiago: 0
Shields: 14
Criminal cases from the ujsportal of the state system:
Caffrey: approx.275
Capehart: 17
Cohen: 7
Ritter: too many to count
Santiago: 6
Shields: 0
I did not pull Federal matters but it is pretty clear who are the litigators in this pool of candidates.
Federal Court docket results for entry of appearance:
Caffrey: 113
Capehart: 733 (primarily bankruptcy)
Cohen: 37
Ritter: 0
Santiago: 0
Shields: 9
The three C's are the most experienced litigators in the pack. I am splitting my ticket.
You can say that again.��
October 27, 2021 at 11:26 AM - Why does she "Obviously" have a STRONG Political agenda? Because she is a Woman? Black? Which? Oh and she is in her early 40's How old should she be? She has practiced law for almost 20 years with some of the top firms in this state. Won top awards from the PA Bar and was rated "Highly Recommended"
It appears you know absolutely nothing about this woman. Do your research.
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