On October 9, 2024, the Honorable Lisa Margaret Smith, who served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York in White Plains for twenty-five years, passed away following an extended battle with cancer. Magistrate Judge Smith was a long-time member of the Federal Bar Council Quarterly editorial board, on which she served with vigor until just a few weeks before her passing. To honor Magistrate Judge Smith’s memory and legacy, we have collected remembrances from her friends and colleagues. We all miss her warmth, sense of humor, talent, and dedication to the federal courts. Our condolences are with her family and friends.
* * *
Deborah A. Scalise, Scalise & Hamilton, PC: Colleague, mentor, and friend come to mind and are but a few of the many descriptions of the Honorable Lisa Margaret Smith, but to those of us with the good fortune of knowing her, she was so much more. Magistrate Judge Smith was brilliant, diligent, and vigilant, be it on the bench, in the legal community or the community at large. She was also a wife and mother who dearly loved her family. No matter what obstacle she may have faced, she persevered because she cared about the courts. Formerly a Kings County Assistant District Attorney, Assistant Attorney General in New York State, and Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, in 1995, she was the first woman appointed as a Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in White Plains, where she served three terms until her retirement in 2020. Magistrate Judge Smith ensured that the federal courthouse in White Plains was open to students of all ages, via the Westchester Women’s Bar Association’s (WWBA) Community Outreach Program, her church, local Boy and Girl Scout Troops and local school districts. She helped orchestrate the Take Your Children To Work Days in the White Plains courthouse, and made time to help coach the Rye Neck High School Mock Trial Team. With all she faced, Magistrate Judge Smith’s last benevolent acts last summer included a donation to the Making Strides Walk and nominating several WWBA members for their own awards. We are all better for having known the truly remarkable Magistrate Judge Smith, whose professionalism inspired, led, and mentored many, ensuring that we understood and respected the justice system.
* * *
The Honorable Laura Taylor Swain, Chief U.S. District Judge of the Southern District of New York: While Lisa took her responsibilities to the court, her family, and her community as seriously as anyone I know, she did not take herself too seriously. She had a wonderful sense of humor, and was generous almost to a fault, forgiving of others’ foibles, and encouraging of law students and junior attorneys. Lisa and I got to know each other early in our careers as judges and bonded over our respective experiences of mothering daughters as we exchanged stories, advice, and children’s clothing. Our shared love of music kept us close, as Lisa and I, along with Jed Rakoff and Ron Ellis, collaborated as a singing quartet on the annual Follies for more than a decade. Lisa was on time for every rehearsal, knew every note and lyric, and came up with the most creative costumes and props for our numbers. Finally, I had the good fortune to co-teach occasional classes with Lisa at Pace Law School, where we shared our stories from the bench and tried to instill in the next generation of lawyers the virtues of public service in the federal court system. Lisa exemplified what it means to be a stellar parent, friend, mentor, and judge. The Mother Court is better for her decades of service, and we all miss her dearly.
* * *
The Honorable Colleen McMahon, Senior U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York: Lisa was everything one could want in a judge or a colleague: she was smart, organized, dependable, prompt, and careful. She was a friend in whom I could confide and on whom I could rely to do anything, for me or the court. In fact, when she was first diagnosed with cancer and was literally fighting for her life, she insisted on continuing to preside over a deeply contentious attorney disciplinary trial, an assignment she took on when another colleague had fallen ill. While I have many cherished memories of Lisa, that example best demonstrates why she belonged on the bench: She was courageous and never gave up. That, along with her homemade cookies – which helped set the collegial tone in the Brieant Courthouse – is why judges, staff and attorneys in White Plains loved and respected Lisa.
* * *
The Honorable Vincent Bricetti, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York: Lisa and I first met working as Assistant U.S. Attorneys in White Plains in 1987. When I went into private practice, we became adversaries, and when she became a magistrate judge, I appeared before her dozens of times in civil and criminal cases. Later, we enjoyed ten years as judicial colleagues together and became even closer friends in the White Plains courthouse. Two examples tell you everything you need to know about the stalwart public servant that Lisa was. In the 1990s, Lisa was the prosecutor in a case against a client of mine who had been arrested in a big fraud case but who had, I believed, an innocent explanation for what he had done. Lisa did not just grant my request for a meeting to discuss the facts, but she really listened – and followed up on the information I provided. After re-examining the case, she informed me that the government had decided to drop all the charges. About ten years later, I was defending another client, who was being sued by a former customer, in a civil bench trial over which Lisa presided. My client had a prior insurance fraud conviction that had nothing to do with the case, but that did not stop my adversary from ceaselessly trying to bring it up. Lisa was having none of it and insisted on focusing on the evidence in the case. In the end, she credited my client’s testimony over the plaintiff’s, entered a $50,000 judgment on my client’s counterclaims, and dismissed the plaintiff’s claims. The easy road would have been to reject my client’s narrative because of his criminal conviction, but Lisa took the harder road and decided the case based on her unbiased and objective view of the evidence. These two stories demonstrate that Lisa genuinely cared about justice and getting it right. She cared about people and treating them fairly. She was a great public servant and more importantly, a good person.
* * *
The Honorable Cathy Seibel, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York: The old saying, “if you want something done, ask a busy person,” applied with full force to Lisa Smith. She was a remarkable citizen of the courthouse, the legal community, and the Southern District community in many unseen ways. I first met Lisa as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Manhattan – I followed her lead up to White Plains, which was really the place to be. After she became a magistrate judge, one of my first motion to suppress hearings was before her. She quickly earned a reputation for attention to detail and decisiveness. When I became a district judge, she and a now-retired White Plains magistrate judge schooled me on the do’s and don’ts of proper district judge decorum for efficient referrals to magistrate judges, all of which I have dutifully followed. One of the smartest things I ever did was ask Lisa to serve as co-chair of the White Plains event to commemorate the 225th anniversary of the Southern District of New York. She brought to the role her imagination, creativity, organization, follow-through, and institutional knowledge, and over the course of two years, she assembled and managed a team that prepared everything from the guest list to an historical reenactment. It was no surprise that she thought to make thank-you keepsakes for every member of the planning committee. I benefitted from Lisa’s guidance and experience when, in 2013, I was assigned a multi-district litigation, to which, fortunately, she was the assigned magistrate judge. In the face of aggressive lawyering and many complex issues, we worked as a team to wrestle the case to the ground, often presiding jointly over proceedings in what I like to think of as a model of how well a big case can run when the district and magistrate judges work together.
* * *
The Honorable Paul A. Davison, U.S. Magistrate Judge (Ret.) for the Southern District of New York: I had the pleasure of knowing Lisa for decades, dating back to when she was an Assistant U.S. Attorney. The warmth and collegiality that makes the White Plains courthouse so unique is substantially attributable to Lisa. She was the one who not only organized our weekly Friday lunches, but she had the ingenious idea of bringing her delicious homemade cookies as bait, which turned out to be the key to luring certain less social judges to attend. Lisa decorated for every holiday and organized potluck lunches among various groups in the courthouse. She made everyone feel welcome, including me. When I visited her chambers for the first time, I had recently been selected as a magistrate judge, and she greeted me with a huge hug and an invaluable catalogue of advice for navigating my new role. Over the years, Lisa was a colleague on whom I could always rely to talk through any thorny issue that arose in one of my cases.
* * *
The Honorable Kim Berg, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York: Magistrate Judge Smith was one of my earliest role models as a new lawyer. She was an incredibly influential person in my aspirations to seek appointment to the bench. She graciously gave so much of her time to mentoring others, myself included. I will always cherish our time together and the invaluable advice she imparted. Our community has lost not only a remarkable mentor but a dear friend whose guidance and support are deeply missed.
* * *
The Honorable Mark Fox, U.S. Magistrate Judge (Ret.) for the Southern District of New York: Lisa and I had adjoining chambers for over fourteen years, and shared coffee every morning and frequent lunches with our clerks. There was never a kinder more considerate person in this court. Lisa was always available to consult or lend a hand; she would pick up the slack on criminal duty whenever I asked. She never forgot a birthday and had a talent for baking cookies and making delicious soup. Lisa was simply a joy and a pleasure to work with.
* * *
Karen Jones, former law clerk: Magistrate Judge Smith personified what it means to be a public servant. She felt quite literally that her role was to serve the public – to adjudicate cases fairly and equitably; to administer justice evenhandedly; to provide civic education to groups of all ages; to engage with the legal community through various bar associations; and to mentor and teach the next generation of lawyers. Beyond that, Magistrate Judge Smith treated everyone she encountered equally, with the same level of consideration and respect, and she had a special ability to connect with people on a personal level. She was intensely devoted not only to her own family, but to her “chambers family” as well, fostering a sense of kinship among us. She also promoted a sense of community in the White Plains courthouse, spearheading a weekly judges’ lunch, which she ensured was a success by always providing homemade cookies, and strengthening the bonds between the magistrate judges’ chambers through birthday and holiday celebrations. Magistrate Judge Smith modeled the idea that you could find fulfillment not only in your work, but also in the creation of a positive and supportive work environment. Her impact on the White Plains courthouse will endure.