Fil-Am to serve as federal judge in NY

MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino-American was confirmed to serve as a judge in a federal district court in New York, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

The DFA said the US Senate confirmed on Dec. 18 by a vote of 91-0 the nomination by US President Barack Obama of Lorna Schofield, an American judge of Filipino descent, as a federal district court judge for the Southern District of New York.

She is the first Filipino-American to serve as an Article III federal judge.

Schofield, who was recommended for nomination to the bench in April of this year by New York Senator Charles Schumer, is the daughter of a Filipina, Priscilla Tiangco Schofield, who hails from Batangas but immigrated to the US post World War II after marrying a US serviceman, the Philippine Consulate General in New York reported to the DFA.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree major in German and English magna cum laude from Indiana University and completed her law studies at the New York University (NYU) Law School.

At NYU, she was a Pomeroy scholar and editor of the NYU Law Review.

Schofield had served for some time as an assistant US attorney for the criminal division of the Southern District of New York. She was likewise the first Asian-American Pacific Islander to chair the litigation committee of the American Bar Association and was named by the National Law Journal as one of the 50 most influential minority lawyers in the US.

While in private practice, she famously served as legal counsel of celebrity Rosie O’Donnell in a $ 100-million lawsuit against the former publishers of the defunct Rosie magazine. 

While serving as O’Donnell’s attorney, Schofield made a number of appearances on US television talk shows which featured the celebrated case.

She joined the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton where she became a partner in 1991. While with D&P, she specialized in general commercial litigation, white collar criminal defense/internal investigations, bankruptcy litigation, and class actions.

Schofield was one of the guests of the consulate during the June 2012 Independence Day reception held at the Philippine Center in New York and met many members of the Filipino-American community.