The prosecutor that got me interested in courts and the law 20 years ago

When I worked as a reporter for a Philadelphia weekly newspaper, I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Barbara Christie, Philly's top prosecutor and a woman who pioneered the way for female attorneys in a man's world. She shared with me when she first started in law, years prior to my interview, she got called "honey" and "sweetie" and not taken seriously.

I used to sit in on classes with a friend who attended Temple Law School and knew quite a few local lawyers in Philadelphia and Atlanta through my work as a reporter and later through business. The professors and many others have suggested in the past, I pursue a career in law, but I am happier writing about those who do. Ms. Christie is one of many lawyers I admire and many other friends who are lawyers.

It was Ms. Christie that got me interested in covering crime, courts and jury trials. The photograph in  is almost 20 years later then when we met but she will always be the powerful dynamic prosecutor, known for winning cases and murder trials.

http://hedecisions.com/why-hedg/panel-members/barbara-christie-esq/

Barbara Christie comes to HEDG with a professional history demonstrating that she is extraordinarily well prepared to make decisions in the most difficult and sensitive matters.

Ms. Christie enjoyed a career of more than twenty four (24) years as an Assistant District Attorney in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, where she earned a reputation as one of the finest trial lawyers ever to serve in an office renowned for great trial lawyers. Among her colleagues in that office were Arlen Spector, then District Attorney, and later United States Senator; Edward Rendell, later mayor of Philadelphia and Governor of Pennsylvania; and Ronald Castille, who became Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. After trying well over one hundred murder cases, including the most difficult the office encountered, she was appointed Chief of the Homicide Division. She was the first woman to hold that position. Ms. Christie also served as Chief of the Special Investigations and Grand Jury Units, where she oversaw the most complex, and demanding cases, including those involving political corruption and governmental misconduct matters.

Upon leaving the District Attorney’s Office, Ms. Christie was appointed Chief Counsel to the Pennsylvania State Police, and then Chief Counsel to the Board of Probation and Parole. In these roles she provided legal counsel at the highest level of state government for eighteen years, serving under four governors.

During her career Ms. Christie has successfully and skillfully dealt with matters as varied as murder trials, internal investigations, political corruption, labor and contract disputes, civil rights claims, administrative hearings, and prison and prisoner issues.

Ms. Christie graduated from Chatham College, summa cum laude, with a degree in Political Science and received her J.D. from the Villanova University School of Law.

She is admitted to practice before the Pennsylvania courts, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

Ms. Christie has lectured in such areas of law as child abuse, police brutality, victims’ rights, women in the law and racially motivated crime.  While studying constitutional law as an exchange student at American University in Washington D.C., she wrote the paper “Due Process Considerations of Arrest Records Expungement,” which served as a model for current expungement law in Pennsylvania. She also worked as a counselor in a Department of Corrections half-way house.

Ms. Christie is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Women’s’ Leadership Council, has been featured in Who’s Who In American Women, and is a recipient of the Chapel of Four Chaplains Award for public service. In a poll of the city’s legal community conducted by Philadelphia Magazine, she was voted Philadelphia’s top prosecutor.