Judge Kate Rosenthal, who broke gender barriers in 39-year career, retires: ‘She wasn’t intimidated by anyone’
Updated Dec 17, 2020;
Posted Dec 17, 2020
City Judge Kate Rosenthal in her chambers at the criminal courthouse in 2010. Michelle Gabel/The Post-Standard
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Syracuse, NY -- When Kate Rosenthal opened her Syracuse criminal defense practice in 1983, there weren’t any women handling the biggest cases: homicides.
“There were no women at that point doing it,” Rosenthal recalled. And most of the judges didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.
“The bench was all male, they were all about as old as our fathers, and they couldn’t conceive why we would want to do that kind of work,” Rosenthal said.