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Content provided by the American Bar Association Division for Public Education. Visit the Division for Public Education's website to learn more about the law and its role in society (www.abanet.org/publiced). For more profiles of pioneers in the legal profession, visit the Division for Public Education's Raising the Bar: Pioneers in the Legal Profession website at www.abanet.org/publiced/raisingthebar.html.
José A. Cabranes
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In 1998, Judge José A. Cabranes spoke to the graduating class of the University of Connecticut School of Law. He said: Intelligence, judgment and hard work are indispensable to success in the law, and it is rare that, in their absence, a good name, good manners or good luck can be of much help. A lawyer's job is to represent others, and when it comes to choosing someone to protect one's life, liberty or property, no one in his right mind will choose to be represented by a well-mannered, well-connected or well-heeled person who cannot do the job. This philosophy of the practice of law has informed his own long career as a lawyer, teacher, and a judge. José Cabranes was born in 1940 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, where his parents were teachers and his father was also one of Puerto Rico's first professionally trained social workers. When he was five years old, he moved to the South Bronx with his family, where his father became director of Melrose House, a settlement house serving newly arrived Puerto Rican migrants. Cabranes attended New York City public schools and went on to graduate from Columbia College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961. In 1965 he earned a J.D. from Yale Law School. He then attended the University of Cambridge in England under a Kellett Research Fellowship from Columbia College. In 1967 Cabranes earned an M.Litt. in International Law from the University of Cambridge. Returning to New York City, Cabranes practiced law for four years with Casey, Lane & Mittendorf. In 1971 he became an associate professor at Rutgers University Law School, teaching international law, administrative law and conflicts of law. In 1973 he was appointed Special Counsel to the Governor of Puerto Rico and as head of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico's office in Washington, D.C. In 1975 he moved to New Haven to become General Counsel of Yale University, and a year later he resumed teaching, offering courses at Yale Law School in international law. Since law school Cabranes has been active in community affairs. He was a founding member of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which he subsequently chaired. He also served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Aspira of New York, an educational organization that helps inner-city Hispanic youth prepare for college. In 1979, Cabranes became the first Puerto Rican appointed to the federal bench in the continental United States, when President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, sitting in New Haven. He was serving as Chief Judge of that Court in 1994 when he was appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, based in New York. Cabranes is the author of articles on international law, education law and public affairs, and wrote Citizenship and the American Empire (1979), a history of the U.S. citizenship of the Puerto Ricans. He was co-author, with his wife, Yale law professor Kate Stith, of Fear of Judging: Sentencing Guidelines in the Federal Courts, which was awarded the Gavel Award Certificate of Merit of the American Bar Association in 1999. When President Bill Clinton nominated Cabranes to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1994, he said, "Judge Cabranes has an outstanding record of achievement in the legal profession, in academia, and in public service." This record has been recognized by a number of organizations: Cabranes has received the John Jay Award from Columbia University for "personifying the ideals of American democracy and representing the very best of the federal judiciary"; the Connecticut Bar Association's highest award, given to the Connecticut judge who "epitomizes long-term, dedicated and conscientious service to the community in a judicial role"; and the Federal Bar Council's Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence. Judge José Cabranes' career-which spans law practice and teaching, community work and a distinguished judicial record-truly exemplifies what can be achieved through those "indispensable" virtues of intelligence, judgment and hard work. (Originally published in 2003) |
