Judge Idee C. Fox, President Judge of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, was honored as the 2021 recipient of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. Distinguished Jurist Award on Sept. 30 at the Bench-Bar Conference opening reception.
The Brennan award recognizes a jurist who has made a significant, positive impact on the quality of administration of justice in Philadelphia.
“Judge Fox is intelligent, learned and fair, but most of all she is compassionate,” said Stephanie Resnick, managing partner of the Philadelphia office at Fox Rothschild and chair of the Brennan Award committee. “She is a go-to person within the court system and is a problem solver. Her integrity and dedication are unrivaled.”
In her acceptance speech, Fox said the courts have faced many challenging times in the past few years, including the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest following the murder of George Floyd and a tumultuous presidential election where Philadelphia became a focus.
“Crisis truly tests your character,” she said. “As Justice Brennan said, ‘Law cannot stand apart from the social changes around it.’ And hasn’t that been what we’ve witnessed these past few years.”
Fox said keeping the courts operational and providing the public with the access it needed during the past year and a half has been a team effort in innovation and leadership by the judiciary, the Bar and other stakeholders.
“As we join each other on this beautiful fall evening, let us not forget how it feels to be in a constant state of crisis,” Fox said. “Let us hope we can learn a great deal from this pandemic, not only to make our profession more efficient, but to make us more human, more empathetic to the people that we serve and more caring in our delivery of fair and impartial justice.”
A South Philadelphia native, Fox aspired to be a lawyer from the age of nine. She was the first in her family to attend college, earning her B.A. at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her law degree from Washington University Law School in St. Louis. She worked in private practice in various areas of the law before being elected to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in 1995. She was retained in 2005 and again in 2015.
Fox served in the Family Court Division, Domestic Relations Section, from 1996-2008, including as Supervising Judge from 2001-2005. She was reassigned to the Civil Trial Division in 2008, and appointed Supervising Judge of that division until 2018, when she was elected President Judge. Fox is a past winner of the Family Law Section’s Herbert R. Weiman, Jr. Award. In 2019, she received the Equal Justice Award from Community Legal Services.
In a letter nominating Fox for the award, Megan E. Watson, partner, Berner Klaw & Watson, said Fox is never too busy to talk with an attorney and was extremely involved with the Family Law Section and the Cipriani American Inn of Court.
“… Cases were not just a number, a name or a job to her,” Watson wrote. “Judge Fox treated each case with respect, looking in depth at everyone involved. Her Honor also looked at the family as a whole with an understanding that her ruling had real implications on real people, including children.”
Judge Annette M. Rizzo (ret.) in her nominating letter described Fox as a “Judge’s Judge” who is always respectful to counsel, parties and staff.
“The exemplary leadership of Judge Fox is ever present in her day-to-day oversight of the Courts as President Judge,” Rizzo wrote. “She gives intense focus and dedication to all aspects of her tasks – whether it be the ‘big’policy issues or the routine administrative calls on operations.”
The Philadelphia Bar Association, founded in 1802, is the preeminent metropolitan association of lawyers in the United States. It is a keystone in the ongoing developments of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania legal systems. With more than 200 years of dedicated service to stand on, the Philadelphia Bar Association is firmly rooted in the Philadelphia community as a steady and reliable bellwether. To learn more about the association, visit here.
