About Judge Fatimat O. Reid
APRIL 2022
The Honorable Judge Fatimat O. Reid is a Family Court Judge in the 7th Judicial District - Monroe County, New York. Judge Reid was elected in 2018 and took the bench in January 2019.
Judge Reid has stated that CASA played a very important role in her own life. She, herself, had the benefit of a CASA Volunteer Advocate when she was a young child, a relationship she continues to maintain and value to this day.
“For me, on the bench, the insider perspective that I get from the CASA is very important. It helps me in my decision making; it helps me to understand dynamics a little better; it helps me to understand if there are people on any side not giving me the full story. Having the CASA there to fill in the blanks because they have that connection either with the children or with the families to really give me insight that I otherwise might not have is really invaluable. I find a CASA’s perspective very helpful. I know it must sometimes feel like daunting, thankless work but we really have to think about the children and the impact. Sometimes it just takes that one person to really make a difference in a child’s life. Having [my CASA’s] influence; having her there in my life; having her be able to advocate for me in court, and articulate my struggles helped me in the long term.””
The Honorable Fatimat O. Reid began her legal career as a legal assistant for the Serotte Law Firm in 2005. The following year, she became a litigation associate at Wolpoff & Abramson. She worked there for the next two years, eventually moving to Davidson Fink in 2008. In 2012 she served as a municipal attorney with the Law Department of the City of Rochester until 2014, at which time she became associate general counsel for the Rochester City School District, quickly rising to become its chief of staff in 2016. The Hon. Fatimat O. Reid has served as president of the Rochester Black Bar Association as well as a member of the Monroe County Bar Association.
Although she was born in New York, Judge Reid was raised in Lagos, Nigeria. She returned to the United States when she was ten-years-old. Her daughters have started their own not-for-profit: Sisters Investing in Sisters (SIS), which is tasked with organizing book collections and tutoring programs.