Candidate for
Family Court Judge; Westchester County

"Service is the rent we pay for our place on earth."

I didn't say that. My son Patrick told me that once when he was trying to decide what to do with his life after graduating college. I asked him where he heard it. He said he couldn't remember, but he knew where he had learned it--from me. At first, I was proud of myself. I guess I had done my job. Then, I was rather humbled. Patrick had learned a lesson that I have to learn over and over again every day.

I started learning back in the `60's on the streets of Philadelphia with a couple of men who worked those streets, which were poor and black, hopeless and seething with anger. They fought for decent housing, decent jobs and decent education; they marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to make that happen and defeat the hopelessness and anger. I wanted to be like those men. I worked alongside them and went off to a seminary to become like them. As a seminary student, I worked in poor neighborhoods in D.C. and Baltimore with kids and the elderly. I came to New York and worked the streets of the Bronx with ex-cons, drug addicts and alcoholics; I assisted in the prison chaplaincy and became involved in prison reform. Then, I realized I wasn't pious enough for ministry. I left the seminary, but the good work I had learned from good men didn't leave me.

I landed on the streets of the Lower East Side picking up runaway kids for Covenant House. By then, it was the mid-`70's. I had already met Clare Keenan, who would become my wife of 32 years now. (Where did we meet? Working together in a soup kitchen. It's true!) Clare and I became group home parents for eight teenage girls. We had a deal. I would be full-time, while she went to nursing school. Then, we would switch, while I went to law school. In the middle of it all, we married; we had our first child Catie, and the next chapter began, called, "The Keenan-Devlin Family."

After graduating Delaware Law School, magna cum laude, I got my first job in Family Court, New York City. Of course I did. Where else could I go with a law degree and all I had learned on those streets in D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, the Bronx and the Lower East Side! I became law clerk to a Family Court Judge who taught me to listen carefully and patiently to what people say and what they don't. He taught me to look behind their stories to the lies they sometimes tell others, and often tell themselves. He taught me not to rush myself or others, but to take the time to search for the real problem in each case and not to solve it, unless you absolutely had to. Instead, he taught me to empower others to discover and solve their own problems.

After about three years, I was promoted to the Appellate Division of Supreme Court, where I became the resident expert in Family Court cases. As law clerk to one of the Associate Justices, who would become Presiding Justice, I researched and drafted hundreds of appellate opinions for the court, many of which involved family law matters.

It was the mid-`80's and our second child had been diagnosed with severe developmental disabilities. I had to be closer to home (Yonkers). Clare and I had doctors' appointments, trips to Blythedale Children's Hospital, occupational therapists, speech therapists and meetings with all kinds of experts to learn how to be the best parents we could be for our son Timothy. So, I transferred to Supreme Court, Westchester County, in White Plains, which has become my home-away-from-home for more than 20 years.

Law clerk to some of our greatest Supreme Court Justices, I was assigned to regular civil parts until there was a change in the Mental Hygiene Law in 1993, and someone was needed to coordinate the new Guardianship Courts of the 9th Judicial District. These Courts are responsible for determining the incapacities of adult citizens due to age, physical, mental or emotional challenges and fashioning remedies to meet their needs, including the appointment of guardians. These courts are also responsible for supervising the implementation of these remedies, including the performance of guardians.

After seven years with the Guardianship Courts in the 9th Judicial District, I was appointed by Chief Judge Judith Kaye and Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman as the first Director of the New York State Office of Guardian and Fiduciary Services. I was responsible for all the Guardianship Courts in the State, developing resources for the courts, training judicial and non-judicial personnel, establishing statewide procedures for the appointment of guardians and their supervision and creating new technologies for collecting data about guardianship cases and persons under guardianship. This job took me all over the State, lecturing about elder law, elder abuse, mental health, social security and Medicaid law. I lectured in courthouses, bar associations, hospitals, nursing homes, colleges and universities--about how vulnerable we all are and about the impact of these vulnerabilities on our families.

After more than 25 years in front of the Bench, behind the Bench and near the Bench, I was appointed to the Bench in 2005--County Court Westchester County. And where did I land? Family Court. Almost immediately, I was assigned as an Acting Family Court Judge and an Acting Supreme Court Justice handling Family Law cases. I was appointed again in 2006 to the County Court, and again was assigned Acting Family Court Judge and Acting Supreme Court Justice. Finally, I became a Family Court Judge on January 1, 2007.

Family Court, White Plains, is where I work--all day and every day. It's there where I see the same problems I saw on those streets where I landed in the `60's and `70's. It's there where I try to apply the lessons I learned from my first days in Family Court almost 30 years ago. It's there where I face how vulnerable we all are and how these vulnerabilities impact our families. And it's there where I want to continue to serve and why I am standing for election in 2007.

There is one last part of my biography that doesn't fit neatly within a timeline--remember the Keenan-Devlin Family. Yes, Clare still puts up with me after 32 years. As a registered nurse, she has spent most of her career in OB/GYN and now manages a special perinatology practice of Montefiore Hospital in Scarsdale. My daughter Catie and her husband Nick have just blessed us with our first grandchild, Hudson. (That's right--Hudson. Catie and Nick are both majors in the Air Force and, since Hudson will be a "military brat" dragged all over the world, they wanted him to know his New York roots.) Our son Tim, with his many challenges, has an incredible blessing--the gift of music. He is an accomplished organist who has played in many churches in Westchester County. Patrick, a graduate of Northwestern University, was a Vista Volunteer last year and is now working for a non-profit organization in Illinois as an advocate for health policy reform.

Last, last, last--I promise. Through my son Tim, who has taken Clare and me to places we would have never gone on our own, I have been involved with the Association for Mentally Ill Children and the Clearview School in Briarcliff Manor. I have been a board member and president for the last 12 years. Our association and school are dedicated to meet the special needs of children with mental and emotional challenges, while maintaining them at home and in the community. Many of our 118 children from pre-K to 21 years are also developmentally disabled, some with autism or asperger syndrome. Clear View is a place we may never have gone without Tim, but, even still, it's a place with some familiarity for us. At so many different times and in so many different places, we have learned well how vulnerable we all are.

That's the story. It has taught me to keep on learning that, indeed, "Service is the rent we pay for our place on earth."