Judge Avion Benjamin Embodies Caribbean Girl Magic

Judge Avion Benjamin Embodies Caribbean Girl Magic

Her full name is Avion Monique Natasha Benjamin Harris. When a Facebook post congratulating her went viral with more than 12,000 shares, people in her native Trinidad weren’t sure if it was the same Avion they knew. She goes by her Panamanian married name of Harris on Facebook but it’s Benjamin in the courtroom. Despite the advances of women in the legal arena, she says changing last names in the industry is a hassle that’s not worth it. However, there’s one name no one can dispute: Superior Court Judge.

By her count, Judge Benjamin is now one of six Black women, out of 46 judges, to sit on the bench in Essex County, New Jersey. She credits Governor Phil Murphy with addressing diversity on the bench with appointments like hers and Haitian-American Fabiana Pierre-Louis, who became the first Black woman to serve on New Jersey’s Supreme Court in September 2020. However, she says there’s still work to be done.

[Additional Read: Should Harvard Pay Reparations to Antigua]

I spoke with her Honor as she prepped for upcoming cases in her court chambers with a small Trini flag prominently displayed on her shelf. The mother of two teens talked about her simple recipe for success, the importance of having a close circle of friends, the lesson she learned about praying, and, of course, that viral Facebook post.

Judge Benjamin, what was the reaction from people in Trinidad about the appointment?

“They were so excited and proud. I told a few people here at work, if you go to Trinidad, they probably have me on the United States Supreme Court down there because [laughs] I feel like I was their Amy Barrett because when my confirmation hearings and stuff was going on, they’re following that news here. To them, it was a big thing, but they were just excited and proud to know that one of their own became a judge, so it’s been overwhelming.”

What about the reaction from your immediate family? Do you still have family in Trinidad?

“My father lives in Trinidad. I don’t really have a relationship with my father though but, ironically, my father is pretty well known in Trinidad because of his career. For people down there, it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s his daughter who’s now this big judge,’ even though he really had nothing to do with me being where I am right now, but I have aunts and a lot of cousins. I go home every year for Carnival and sometimes we try to go for Christmas too, but I go back home every year. The joke was when I go back for Carnival, well obviously not next year [2021] but after, that I’m going to need security and all of that around me to go to the fetes and the parades. [laughs] Most of my people now are in Mount Lambert or Port-of-Spain.”

If you don’t mind me asking, what does your father do?

“He’s a doctor. He’s a cancer specialist in Trinidad, like, one of the best... His name is Hess Benjamin.”

*Author’s note: In June 2020, a wing of St. James Medical Complex in Trinidad was named after Dr. Benjamin, one of the longest-serving doctors in public service. Prime Minister Keith Rowley was there for the official opening and praised Dr. Benjamin for his decades of service.

What about your immediate family, your husband, your teens? What was their reaction [to the bench appointment]?

“This was a four-year process in the making. To my kids, it was, ‘This is never going to happen’ because I kept telling them, “Mommy’s making moves. It’s gonna happen.” Then, we would take two steps forward and then something would happen so by the time this happened, they were kind of over it, but their main reaction was, ‘Oh, we gonna have a nice Christmas this year ‘cause mommy got a promotion.’” [laughs]
[Shanida Carter] “That’s too funny.”[laughs]
“My husband, he’s just been supportive the whole ride. It’s kinda like, ‘Do your thing. Keep striving so he’s been really, really great.”

Before we get too much into the law weeds though, because I don’t want to forget to ask, you go back to carnival every year. Do you play mas or do you just go? Are you on de road?

“I’m on the road! Costume, everything! That has been, especially with the job that I’ve had, the career, it has always been a girls’ trip. Twice the family went, you know, my husband and the kids, but usually it’s always a girls’ trip and that is my 10 days of just ‘woosah.’ You know, let it all out, February march time and then I could come back and continue the rest of the year. I’m going to every fete. I’m on the road Monday, Tuesday. Wednesday, we on the plane going to Tobago for the rest of the week.”

Nice! What brought you to the U.S.?

“Really my mom because I have an older brother. My brother is five years older than me, and we have different fathers, but my mom was struggling. She was a single mom, raising two kids, working and she had, by that time I think, one of my aunts was already here and a few other friends came to America and kept telling her about it. So, she quit her job, bought a plane ticket for my brother and I and our dog. We had a dog. We had just gotten a dog right before we were leaving, and it was supposed to be my dog. I think a part of her felt bad to leave the dog, so she brought the dog to America. It was one of those, ‘Let’s see if we can make it.’ We started out in Florida because, at the time, that’s where my aunt was. She found a place. She got a job but with the job in Florida, which is something she didn’t know ahead of time, you need a car in Florida.”
[Shanida Carter] “Of course.”
“Where we were staying, the transportation, she had to get up at the crack of dawn. It just wasn’t working for her. Then we had another family member who was in New York that said, “Well, come up here and see if you can make it up here.” We came to New York, Mount Vernon, and that’s where I ended up finishing elementary school. Went to high school in the Bronx and that was it. She got a good job in New York, started in the hotel industry, cleaning the rooms and everything and worked her way up.”

That’s awesome. How did you then end up here in Newark?

“I went to law school in D.C. When I was taking the bar, I decided to take New York and New Jersey because most people said, if you pass the New York bar and you’re studying for the New York bar, you might as well take New Jersey so I took both. At the time, my husband and I were dating, and he had already moved to Jersey and was living in Jersey. When I took the New York and New Jersey bar, I passed both bars. The first job I got happened to be in New Jersey. I started working in a small firm in Freehold, New Jersey doing plaintiffs-type work, trip and falls, things like that. I worked with them for three years before I got the job with the city of Newark law department, and I worked there for the majority of my career.”

Why did you decide to become a lawyer?

“I love arguing. [laughs] In the 10th grade, my social studies class, my social studies teacher. Up to this day, I’ll never forget him, or I don’t know how I can really thank him. Gary Klein. We did a debate on the Cold War. He was one of those teachers everybody wanted to have as their teacher because he was fun and energetic. He split us up into groups to debate the Cold War. That was my first time doing any kind of debate and my team won. I remember him afterwards coming to me and said to me, “Listen, you have something there. I don’t know what you’re trying to be, but you might want to think about being a lawyer.” At the time in the family, there was no lawyers or anything for me to look up to. I always knew my father was a doctor, but I didn’t have a relationship with him to know I’m growing up in a house with a doctor or anything like that. For the most part, everyone in my family was laborers.”

What was the biggest hurdle to becoming an attorney?

“Besides the bar [laughs], financially, I still have law school loans. I’m still paying that. My theory is I’m just going to keep giving them the minimum payment until I die.” [laughs]
[Shanida Carter] “Wow.” [laughs]
“I knew my mother couldn’t afford for me to go to college or to law school or to anything like that, so I had to borrow the money, but I knew that was something that I wanted to do. Here’s the thing: I did really, really good in college. I graduated magna cum laude and everything like that but when you get to law school, it’s like everybody is smart. The bar is set a little higher. The first ‘C’ that I got in my educational career was in law school. I was traumatized by that, like, ‘A ‘C’? Me? I don’t get those grades.’ A part of the struggle, so to speak, is knowing that ‘Don’t let the grades define you’ because the competition is higher. Everyone there is just as smart as you or smarter. You just have to do your best. I think that’s kind of what kept me to make it through law school. In studying for the bar, it was a nightmare but, I’m happy to say, I passed both the New York and New Jersey bar on the first try. Not many people can say that especially with the New York bar because it’s one of the most difficult bars to pass.”

Coming up, you mentioned the bar was so difficult and you pushed through that. It sounds like you had an incredible support system with family, extended family, and friends but were there any of your peers that helped get you through it? Did you work through it together?

“My son’s godmother. We met in college and we both went to law school together. We went to the same law school. Our first year in law school, one of her closest cousins died. She was living in D.C. because we went to GW [George Washington University]. Her cousin was, maybe, two or three years older than us but used to look out for us once we got there. Her cousin died, went to work and had a brain aneurysm at her job and literally died at her desk. That happened our first year of law school. My son’s godmother was like, ‘I’m done. I’m not doing this.’ I had to say to her, “No, that’s not what Camille would have wanted. We came down here to go to law school so let’s do it.” Honestly, we really just helped each other get through law school because we had each other. There were many times where I was like, ‘I’m over this. I don’t want to be here,’ but she remembered how I helped her that first year when she was ready to quit so she pushed me too…Law school really makes you doubt yourself because, again, you’re smart. You belong there but when you can sit in a room and count how many people look like you, you start questioning. Do I really belong here? We went to a good law school. George Washington is one of the best law schools. We had to keep encouraging each other so she definitely was a Godsend to me.”

*Author’s note: GW is the oldest law school in Washington, D.C. and ranked by “U.S. News & World Report” as the 23rd best law school in the country in 2020.

Is your son’s godmother West Indian also?

“Yes, she’s half-Trini and half-Vincy.” [from St. Vincent]

Of course. That must have been amazing to have somebody, not just a woman of color, but a West Indian to go through law school with you. So, you passed the bar. You’re a lawyer. You’ve had an incredible career that’s taken you all the way to the bench. Which case stands out the most to you and why?

“I love the courtroom. Every case was very, very special to me. Every case that I’ve tried, I have a story behind it. The one that’s most appropriate to talk about was really the last case that I had before I ascended to the bench. The mayor in Newark created, through the municipal council, a Civilian Complaint Review Board. It was the first one of its kind here in New Jersey. The FOP [Fraternal Order of Police] filed lawsuits to stop us from doing that. Because of that case, I got to argue in the State Supreme Court. I argued that case in April [2020]. It was virtual because of the pandemic but if I never handled that case, I would have never gotten the opportunity to argue in the Supreme Court. The legal community is pretty big but not everyone gets to go to the Supreme Court. Because of that case, I was able to go to the Supreme Court. Although the ultimate decision they made was not the best and we weren’t happy with it, I’m just so grateful that I got to be a part of history here in the state of New Jersey with us trying to establish a Civilian Complaint Review Board.”

You mentioned the process took four years, and I’m sure it’s very involved. When you decide you want to be a judge, what happens? How does the application process work?

“When you don’t know, you don’t know, right? I had no idea what the process was like. I had a few people talk to me about it and say, “Hey, you should really consider being a judge.” At the time that I thought about it, it may have been six years ago, one of my girlfriend’s was working in the governor’s office here in New Jersey. Somebody told me, “In order for you to apply, you have to get an application from the governor’s office.” I was like, ‘I know somebody who works there. I’mma get this application!’ So, I called her. I said, “Listen, can you try and get me the application?” She asked some questions, and she came back. She said, “Girl, I can’t get you no application. That’s not how this thing works.” [laughs] In New Jersey, you get nominated by the governor then you have to get confirmed by the state senate but, before the governor even nominates you in the county where you live, your senator has to request from the governor’s office for you to get this questionnaire to start the process. I had to find out who my senator was, had a meeting with that person, and then started from there in 2016.”

It sounds like it was a campaign.

“It’s something like that. You have to get your name out there. For me, while it was somewhat a little difficult, normally when you get nominated, you get nominated in the county that you live in. I live in a different county from the one I work in. I live in Middlesex County, but I work in Essex County. In Essex County, I was pretty well-known because I’m working for the largest city in the state of New Jersey but, in Middlesex: ‘Who’s Avion Benjamin? We don’t know her.’ I had to do that for people to realize, ‘Okay, she’s a good lawyer.’ God would have it work out anyway that by the time the nomination came around, they needed more judges in Essex. They do this thing where they will appoint you in a county that you don’t live in when there’s a need but that’s something only the governor can do.”

So, the governor appoints you. You’re sworn into Superior Court on November 6. At this point, the appointment wasn’t a surprise because you had been working toward it, but it happened in the middle of a pandemic. You said that you argued a case virtually. Why was it overwhelming if you were actively seeking this out?

“A part of this journey that I’ve been on for getting this appointment also had to do with my faith. I was raised Catholic, made all my sacraments and everything like that. I’m still a practicing Catholic, but the last six to seven years I really made a conscientious effort to spend more time with God and pray. Going through this process, one of the things that I was doing was actually being specific about what I wanted. Sometimes you pray but you don’t pray with specificity. I started praying specifically for this and for this to happen. I knew it was going to happen. I just didn’t know when but, because of the faith that I got so much strength from each day, it didn’t happen at a more opportune time. That’s how good God is.”
[Shanida Carter] “Amen.”
“He made it so that it happened in the middle of a pandemic when the world was coming down all around us. People are dying because of this pandemic. He was like, ‘I’m still in the blessing business and I’m going to show you nothing but grace and favor.’ That’s why this happening in this time was so special to me because it just showed me how good God is.”
[Shanida Carter] That is a testimony. What a powerful testimony.
“It sure is. One thing I’ll share with you because I shared it with the people at my job. I journal. I’ve been journaling for probably the last 10 years and I wrote in my journal about four years ago an entry about this happening and I’m going to work hard, and I know it’s going to happen. I said in the journal by the time I’m 44-years-old, I will be on the bench. I turned 44 this year.”
[Shanida Carter] “Whoa.”
“When I went back and read that journal entry from four years ago again, that was nothing but God.”

Yep. Have any responses to your appointment surprised you?

“I will say the whole Facebook thing surprised me because… [laughs] I tell you I was getting messages from people in Trinidad. ‘Are you related to so and so? I saw your post.’ One of my sorority sisters sent me the post in a text and said, “My aunt sent me this from London. She saw it on somebody’s page, and she wanted me to know, ‘Look how good Trinis are doing. This girl became a judge,’” not realizing that my sorority sister knew me personally. I’ve always been proud of where I’ve been from and I’ve always made it known. It just made me feel so good to see so many people just be so genuinely happy for me and seeing that we come to this country and we work hard and that we can ascend and do really, really good things. I had another girlfriend in Barbados who sent me the same thing. She said it was on a page in Barbados. Just to see how proud we are as Caribbean people that one of our own made it, I was surprised by that.”

You’re a superior court judge in the family court. What types of cases do you hear?

“What they have me listening to is what they call non-dissolution matters. What that involves is applications for paternity testing, child support, child custody, visitation, things of that nature. It’s the people that are not married that have children together that need some help on who’s going to have primary custody of the kid, all the issues involved in child support. I would also be doing, what they call, emergent duty [emergency or last-minute appeals]. They haven’t put me on that yet since I’m fairly new, but my understanding is that I’ll be on emergent duty on a calendar basis. Usually, that involves hearing any and all cases that get filed in family but on an emergent basis.”

The first thing I just thought of, which is terrible, is “Maury” and “You are the father!” but I’m sure reality is not that funny. How do you process hearing and judging those types of cases which I imagine are pretty serious and mentally draining for you as a wife and a mom?

“It’s still new to me. It’s more processing of what’s going on. One of the things I try to do though is give the litigants their day in court. Everyone wants an opportunity to be heard. I allow them to be heard and once I have all the facts in front of me, I see what the law is for the application that they filed, and I apply the law to the facts.”

What advice do you have for people who want to follow in your footsteps?

“Work hard and stay humble. And pray! Pray with specificity. Be specific about what you want”.

How has your experience as a West Indian woman shaped the choices in your career?

“I think coming from a West Indian mother and seeing how hard my mother worked when we came to this country. I mean, I remember knowing that my mother was cleaning bathrooms. There was a time where she was actually the help of a pretty wealthy family up in Westchester [New York] where we lived where she was cooking for them, cleaning for them and stuff like that. She did her job with pride until she got to where she made her way into the hotel industry. Just watching her and seeing how hard she worked, because she wanted to give her children more than she had, always pushed me to say, “I have to do better.” If that means working harder, I will. It has always been: I’m going to let my work speak for itself. I know that had a lot to do with me getting to where I am now, and I want that to continue. I never want for anyone to be like, ‘That judge didn’t know what she was doing,’ or ‘That judge, you know, she didn’t even read the papers.’ If it means I have to stay up ‘til 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning to know what the answer is, I’m going to do that. I feel it’s because nothing was given to me, per se, in this life. I’m a firm believer that nothing that’s easily attained is highly cherished either. When you work hard for something, there’s a certain sense of pride that you have and you want to keep it, so you keep working hard. That has a lot to do with how I was raised and being a West Indian.”

What was the reception from your colleagues and the judges who were already there?

“Nothing but love and, honestly, because I practiced in this county, the majority of them already knew me from coming to court so it was like, ‘Yay!’ Especially because I started in the middle of a pandemic, how I’m learning how to become a judge is not the normal way of learning how to become a judge. They’ve been so great and so welcoming. For the family that I made in the city of Newark law department, they celebrated this. They were like, ‘We know her! We knew her before she was a judge.’ That’s how they see me. [laughs] I haven’t come across anybody that has a bad taste in their mouth about this happening to me. ‘I think if it could happen to anybody, it should be you’ has been the attitude of most of the people I’ve worked with. Even some of my adversaries, when this happened, reached out to me and was like, ‘Oh my God. I’m so happy for you.’ It’s been really good.”

You talked a lot about praying with specificity so what's your goal specifically?

“Specifically, the short-term goal is to get tenure. Your first appointment on the bench is for seven years and then you have to get renominated for tenure. That’s the short-term goal right now. Do what I need to do for the next seven years. Once I get tenure, let’s see what happens”.

Judge Avion Benjamin’s appointment serves as representation for West Indians and womxn of color everywhere. Her identity as a Black womxn, immigrant, and Caribbean-American is unique.

Diversity and inclusion leaders argue that in a society where representation and conversations on race, gender, and equality are now at the forefront, seeing more womxn of color in our judicial system and in positions of power is a necessity. Here at CC mag the words driven, ambitious, knowledgeable and proudly Caribbean define our popular hashtag #caribbeangirlmagic. Many would say Judge Avion Benjamin is the embodiment of those very words.