Contributed photo
Angela Robinson.
After retiring as a judge in 2018, Angela Robinson began educating the younger generation in New Haven full-time about the legal profession in hopes of diversifying the field.
Robinson grew up in New Haven and served on a number of state benches. She published her first book, First Black Women Judges, in March 2019 with a targeted audience of youth.
The book highlights the lives, careers, and accomplishments of Judges Jane Matilda Bolin, Juanita Kidd Stout and Constance Baker Motley.
During her book-writing process, Robinson would bring drafted excerpts to her presentation at schools to read to elementary and middle schoolers and get feedback. Her hope for sharing the three stories is that they offer youth and all others a “richer understanding for what it means to be American.”
Robinson’s decision to apply to be a Superior Court judge was motivated by her discovery of Jane Bolin, a lawyer and the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School.
“If she can do this 1939. I can do this in 1997,” she recalled telling herself before submitting her application.
Her writing journey started with her personal commitment to sharing historical stories of the law profession to youth in schools. A special education aide at Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School, Sean Hardy, brings Robinson to the school annually to expose the youth to careers in the field of law.
As Robinson began attending more schools to talk with students, she put together a presentation sharing the stories of Bolin, Constance Baker Motley, and Juanita Kidd Stout.
In the course of developing the work into a book, she often had to put writing on the back burner for work and motherhood.
Robinson was born in Indiana and moved to New Haven in the late ‘60s at 2 years old. She first lived in the Prospect Street area with her father, a psychiatric social worker. and mother, a psychologist. Later on Robinson lived in the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods.
While she was in high school, Robinson’s parents encouraged her to explore rather than decide on her career path immediately. She was mentored by a medical doctor; as a junior she was a student reporter covering New Haven news for the Hartford-based Inquirer publication. Once a week Robinson would deliver her weekly four or five articles to Hartford.
While attending Rutgers University, Robinson had a love for English and was considering being an English professor. That was until her roommate convinced Robinson to take a law school prep course with her. After the course Robinson decided to take the law school admission test, and did well. As a dean’s list student, Robinson thought, “Why not apply to law school?”
After graduating from Rutgers, Robinson moved back to New Haven to attend Yale Law School (YLS). Robinson got many of her classmates engaged in the local community like churches and annual local events.
During her last semester at Yale in 1989, Robinson arranged to head to Washington, D.C. for a clerkship position. Plans changed when the judge she was assigned to had health issues and could not continue his work. This left Robinson in search of a post-graduation job weeks before graduating.
Robinson got a position at Wiggin and Dana here in New Haven. Robinson started her career by working on medical malpractice cases.
Robinson called her life series of events the outcomes of “divine intervention” or “serendipity” as she unexpectedly remained in New Haven.
After work at Wiggin and Dana, Robinson planned to be a prosecutor. She then joined Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, where she specialized in medical malpractice, premises liability, employment discrimination, and child abuse cases. She was the first black woman to do trial work on the plaintiff side in civil practice at the Bridgeport firm. She continued this work for eight years until deciding to put in an application to be a judge.
After she was on the list for two years, Gov. John Rowland in 1998 nominated Robinson to the bench. At 33 years old, she was the youngest judge in the state.
Robinson’s appointment recieved positive and negative reactions from the community but she only focused on the positive. “The most supportive people were the other judges,” she said.
Robinson’s first assignment as a Superior Court judge was in Danbury’s criminal court. During her two-decade career, she served in New Britain, Derby, Meridan, Bridgeport, Milford, and New Haven, hearing almost every type of case in courtrooms across the state.
After retiring Robinson returned to Wiggin and Dana, working as the firm’s chief diversity officer until May of this year.
Her two-page list of acknowledgements in the book recognizes those who pushed her over those years to get back to writing — including Hardy, who helped her with maintaining a connection with the students during her school visits.
During the writing process, Robinson said, she was often empowered by the three women’s stories and was motivated to expose youth to the legal profession. Robinson said stories about Black entertainers and athletes shouldn’t be all youth hear about. “I hope it fills the gap,” she said.
Robinson is now able to dedicate her career full time to pushing for the legal profession to be more diverse. “We need more black lawyers,” she said.
Robinson is a Waring and Carmen Partridge Faculty Fellow at Quinnipac University and teaches Critical Race Theory and Alternative Dispute Resolution courses.
Robinson is also preparing the next generation of lawyers through her own local practice Robinson Diversity Consulting.
Robinson is currently putting together an academic article on the three women to follow up on her book.
“We need more Constances, Juanitas and Janes in our future,” she said.
Thank you to Ms Robinson for encouraging young minorities to consider the law profession. There is power in the judicial branch equal to that of the legislative and executive branch. We need more lawyers and judges from all walks of life to diversify the legal system and to create a more fair and just society.