It's been a busy week for Barrow's newest Superior Court judge.
Judge Angela Greene was sworn in at the Barrow courthouse on Dec. 30 and while she's enjoying her new title, she acknowledged there is much work to be done to make her transition as smooth as possible.
"For a while I was thrown off a little bit by (the title), but I'm starting to get used to it now," Greene said from Barrow on Monday.
Greene is taking over for Barrow's first Superior Court judge Michael Jeffrey and was appointed by former Gov. Sean Parnell in November.
Greene, who graduated with honors from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1997, moved to Bethel in 2004 where she worked first for the Office of Public Advocacy and then for the Alaska Public Defender Agency. She was promoted to Barrow, where she served as a public defender for two years until 2009 when she was promoted to regional supervisor for the Alaska Public Defender Agency, first in Kotzebue and then, most recently, in Nome.
"I've always liked Barrow, and I'm very happy to be back," Greene said.
In her time as a lawyer in Alaska, she has traveled to many of the remote communities and participated in diverse cases.
"The thing about the Bush that was the biggest revelation to me as I've moved all these years is that each place is entirely different from the other," she said.
In each community, Greene got involved in life outside the courtroom, participating in local events and with agencies.
"The work that I do and the experiences that I've been able to have through the state have been very fulfilling," Greene said. "From Quinhagak to Kaktovik, and Selawik down to Stebbins, I've been to almost all of them, and the opportunity to work with families and people when they're going through the hardest thing they're ever going to go through, and to be able to walk beside them in that journey is an honor and a privilege."
Greene wants to be seen in Barrow as more than simply a judge in a robe, she said.
"It is important to be involved in the community, in part because you have to be working together on something with other people. That shows that you do believe that a group effort is more productive and more effective than just a solo act."
Greene already has friends and contacts in Barrow and the North Slope region from her time as a public defender there, and said that has made the move a little easier. She never necessarily aspired to be a judge, but when the opportunity arose, she submitted her application in March.
"I think all lawyers sit in the courtroom and have times where they say 'I could do that,' or 'I could do that better,' but it wasn't my goal to be a judge," she said. "But when Judge Jeffrey was retiring, the opportunity to serve the North Slope again was something I really looked forward to and I think that I can do a good job at it."
Over his years, Jeffrey became known for his preference of shorter jail sentences in favor of reintroduction into the community. He also sifted through the legal jargon and created forms that were easier to understand in an effort to tailor his methods to accommodate people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Greene said she hopes that any judge would adapt the court to individual needs and intends to bring integrity and compassion to the bench.
"I'm following a man who's been here for 30 years, and so to make this a smooth transition is a very important priority for me, and I think for everyone else," she said. "I've had the opportunity now to do a couple of arraignments over the weekend and you can see when people don't understand what you've just said. I want people to leave the courtroom understanding what happened; whether they got what they wanted or they didn't. I want them to understand what happened and why."
Along with coping with the logistics of moving to Barrow, Greene has jumped into her new position. There's a lot to learn and a lot of training yet to come, but she's optimistic about her future on the North Slope.
"It's an honor and a privilege to be back here to serve the people of the North Slope, and I look forward to it."
This story first appeared in The Arctic Sounder and is republished here with permission.