By KELSEY SWANEKAMP
Buffalo Law Journal

One of the most well-known people in Buffalo legal circles will soon be moving up from her post at the helm of the 8th Judicial District.

After six years as the district's administrative judge, Hon. Sharon Townsend has been appointed to a new position: vice dean for family and matrimonial law at the New York State Judicial Institute in White Plains.

The post, which will see her traveling frequently to White Plains and other parts of the state, will allow her to use her experience within family courts while providing training for other judges. Townsend served as a supervising judge for Family Court for the 8th District from 1996 until 2002, and as an Erie County Family Court judge from 1992 until 1996.

Buffalo Law Journal: Tell us about your new position. What will you be doing?

Townsend: I am here to support the judges with whatever they need to make sure that they are trained and they have the information they need to do their jobs. How that happens is a work in progress.

BLJ: How did you end up with this job? What led up to the announcement of your appointment?

ST: I had expressed an interest to Judge (Ann) Pfau that I wanted to be involved, particularly in the area of family court. Family court has always continued to be my passion and what I have always tried to stay close to. This job was just created around my interest and the need for it. So the stars all aligned.

BLJ: What will you miss about your current post?

ST: I'm going to miss working with the people that I've worked with here in the district. I've tried to play a role to make the 8th Judicial District the best district in the state, and I believe that it is.

BLJ: You mentioned your passion for family court. What was the highlight of that part of your career?

ST: The individual lives of the children and families that I've touched. These people still come up to me and tell me how I've touched their lives and the lives of their children. That's the part of family court that I really care so much about. With the other parts of the law, I don't have the same passion.

BLJ: What makes you so interested in family court?

ST: Just the idea of dealing with issues surrounding children and families, and it's not a court that deals with money issues. It's a court that deals with human issues - with people's lives - and that's why I find it so interesting.

BLJ: Do you see challenges for women in law today?

ST: Women are treated differently and looked at differently than men. I think it's coming out a little bit even with Judge (Sonia) Sotomayor's confirmation hearings. Some of the things that people are saying about Judge Sotomayor they probably wouldn't have said if she was a man - about her temperament, about the way she asks questions.

For a lot of successful women, they have to devote so much time to their career that they pay the price with their personal life. I think the challenges for women continue to be balance between career and family. I don't know if that's true for men or not - because they have a wife.

BLJ: Are there more opportunities out there for women in the upper levels of the legal profession?

ST: You have many, many, many more than you ever had 25 years ago, but the numbers still haven't reached what they should - given the fact that half the law-school graduates for the last 25 years have been women, but you don't have half of the partners in law firms being women. And you still don't have half the Congress being women, or half of CEOs being women.

BLJ: Do you see yourself as a role model for other women?

ST: I feel very strongly about being a role model - it's important for me to do that. It's a responsibility that I have. I don't realize the impact I have on people. Other women tell me that they feel empowered because a woman is an administrative judge.

Townsend at a glance
Name: Hon. Sharon Townsend
Title: Vice dean for family and matrimonial law, New York State Judicial Institute; wrapping up tenure as administrative judge, 8th Judicial District
Education: University of Rochester, 1976; University of Connecticut School of Law, 1979
Past positions: judge on New York State Supreme and Erie County Family courts, and supervising judge of family court for the 8th Distric; also an adjunct professor at Medaille College
On her career so far: "I'm doing work I love. I'm so blessed. Sometimes I have to pinch myself, I feel so lucky in my life."

 

Although Hon. Sharon Townsend will soon move on to her new post as vice dean for family and matrimonial law at the New York State Judicial Institute, her replacement as 8th Judicial District administrative judge has yet to be named.
Not even Townsend has been clued in to who her successor may be.
"I don't have a scoop on who it is or how it's going to happen or when it's going to happen," she said. "I keep asking Judge (Hon. Ann) Pfau about when it's going to happen, and she keeps saying, ‘We'll get to it.' "
Townsend said that Pfau, chief administrative judge for New York state, wanted to find a replacement for the 6th District administrative judge before moving on to the 8th District. Hon. Michael Coccoma stepped down from the 6th District position after being appointed deputy chief administrative judge for courts outside New York City.
Pfau said that the process for appointing a new 8th District head is in the works, but no decisions have been made. "We asked interested judges to send their names to apply," she said.
For now, though, she and Coccoma are arranging their schedules to allow them to travel to Buffalo and interview candidates.
"Everyone who's interested will get an interview," she said.
Townsend said that while a successor was originally going to be named by mid-summer, she "hopes" that a name will be announced by the end of the summer.
Pfau, too, is eager to get started with the undertaking of choosing a successor.
"Judge Townsend is extremely talented, and she can multitask as well as anyone and handle two full-time jobs, which is what she's doing now," she said, "but it's good and healthy to have a replacement in place."