Hon. Lisa Bloch Rodwin '85

Judge Rodwin grew up in New Jersey and then moved to Connecticut. She attended Douglas College in New Jersey, the women’s college of Rutgers University, an affordable state school. Her parents were educators and emphasized the importance of education and community service to her and her two sisters. Her mother, a college professor, served as a professional role model for Judge Rodwin.

Judge Rodwin moved to Buffalo in 1979 and became an urban planner before she decided to go to law school. She was an older student, and her son was born between her second and third years. There wasn’t support for moms, so she and other classmates founded the Parents Law School Association “mostly because we wanted a place to change dirty diapers.” She was blessed with close friends whom she still sees today. Thomas Headrick was the dean. She especially loved Moot Court and appellate advocacy, where she learned skills that she later used to change laws. “I learned to think on my feet, express myself, and use the law to accomplish change.”

Upon graduation, she spent five years as an assistant district attorney in the Appeals Bureau. Her family then moved to Canada for two years. When she returned, she rejoined the DA’s office and worked as a trial lawyer in City Court. After a couple of years, DA Kevin Dillon asked her if she wanted to start a Domestic Violence Bureau. It would be the first such bureau outside New York City. The first year they had 600 cases; that number grew to 4,000 family violence and child abuse cases per year.

She then decided to become a judge. In 2008 she was elected a judge of Family Court, where she specializes in matters of abuse, neglect, juvenile justice, custody and family violence.

Judge Rodwin has witnessed enormous changes in the way female lawyers in criminal litigation are treated and domestic violence cases are viewed. In the 1980s and early 1990s, female assistant district attorneys faced denigration in court. Judges would mock them in front of jurors. To their credit, DAs Arcara and Dillon still hired female lawyers “and sent them off to battle.”

“We were better prepared, stronger and focused. We knew we were presenting a case they could be proud of,” she said. “I don’t see that kind of denigration anymore.”

Another substantial change: Back then, family violence cases were just dismissed. Today, she said, judges care deeply about victims, whether in civil or criminal arenas.