Adam Rabin, the author of this post, is a partner at McCabe Rabin. Photo credit to Daniel Portnoy Photography.
On
November 14, Southern District of Florida Chief Judge Michael Moore
swore in Judge Robin Rosenberg as a District Court Judge before many
federal and state court judges, bar leaders, family and friends. The
ceremony was moving and captured the personal side of Judge Rosenberg.
The
investiture led off with Jonathan Paine, the son of the late U.S.
District Judge James C. Paine, whom Judge Rosenberg clerked for after
graduating from Duke Law School. Jonathan spoke of how life comes full
circle sometimes with Judge Rosenberg’s getting sworn in the same court
room as Judge Paine had presided back when Rosenberg was clerking for
him.
Past President of The Florida Bar, Scott Hawkins,
presented the Bible and spoke of the nearly 75 hearings that he had
before Judge Rosenberg in a hotly contested state court case over the last few
years and how she never raised her voice once or lost her composure
during the proceedings.
Fourth DCA Judge Robert Gross,
with whom Judge Rosenberg occasionally sat as an associate judge, spoke
of her work ethic and legal acumen. Judge Gross also told a story on
how his clerk performed an appellate review of a case that Judge
Rosenberg handled as a trial court judge and had to enter a separate
order on 70 different motions. One by one, she did not just enter
granted or denied. Instead, she engaged in a separate, individualized
legal analysis on each motion with findings and conclusions. The law
clerk commented to Judge Gross that he had never seen anything like it.
Judge
Rosenberg’s husband, former Palm Beach County State Attorney, Michael
McAuliffe, also spoke on Judge Rosenberg’s accomplishments. In talking
about the Senatorial judiciary confirmation process, McAuliffe
analogized a common expression when mountaineering (a hobby for
McAuliffe who re-climbed Kilimanjaro this summer) that “It’s always
further than it looks. It’s always taller than it looks. And it’s
always harder than it looks.”
The show was stolen,
however, when Judge Rosenberg and McAuliffe’s elder daughter, Sydney
Rosenberg McAuliffe, a freshman at Duke, took the podium. She spoke of
the accomplishments and role-modeling that her mother had provided for
her and her younger brother and sister as a professional. More
significantly though, Sydney spoke of their close, best-friend
relationship and that while her “mom accomplishes more than most by
dawn,” it is her love for and unyielding investment in her children that
was her most laudable accomplishment. Most of the audience had to
brush off the tears.
Judge Rosenberg closed with
thanking her parents, children, family, friends, state-court judicial
colleagues, the federal judges who have welcomed her, President Obama,
and Senators Nelson and Rubio.
If you have never been to a
federal-court (or state-court) judicial investiture, you should attend
one. They always remind me of how fortunate we are to practice law,
re-instill the importance of professionalism and civility in our
profession, and reinforce how family and friends contribute greatly to
one’s success.
Congratulations to Judge Rosenberg on an investiture that had most attendees smiling through the weekend.
