A Breakthrough Judge: What She Always Wanted

By JAN HOFFMAN
Published: September 25, 1992

The views from Pavia & Harcourt's 12th-floor offices in midtown Manhattan are commanding, and the carpeted halls, in soft pastels, are adorned by modern Italian paintings. But Sonia Sotomayor, a partner at the commercial litigation firm, was boxing up her things the other day to take another job. The new one comes with a pay cut, scant carpeting, dingy lighting and a room without a view.

Ms. Sotomayor is thrilled.

"I've gotten letters from people who remember me in grammar school saying that this is what I wanted," she said.

What Ms. Sotomayor has wanted was to be a judge. Next Friday she is to take the oath for a seat on the Federal court of the Southern District of New York, the first Hispanic American to do so. She will also become one of seven women among the district's 58 judges.

But what attaches to her name in legal circles is less her breakthrough status than incredulity: Many of her colleagues say that in a time of skepticism about the quality of judicial appointments, Ms. Sotomayor seems too good to be true. ...

A version of this article appeared in print on September 25, 1992, on page B16 of the New York edition.

Photo: "I'm a down-to-earth litigator, and that's what I expect I'll be like as a judge," said Sonia Sotomayor, who is about to take the oath for a seat on the Federal court of the Southern District of New York. She will be the first Hispanic American and one of only seven women in the district. (Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times)