Throughout her celebrated law career, Melissa C. Jackson ’70 has served as an attorney and a judge, including her current role as a New York Supreme Court Justice. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Fordham University School of Law, Melissa is a member of the 50th Reunion Class.
*Published in the 2020 Alumnae Bulletin
“As a Supreme Court Justice for New York’s Criminal Court, Melissa C. Jackson ’70 presides over some of the toughest cases in the county, handing down life-altering decisions from a stately court building in Lower Manhattan. The responsibility weighs heavily.
“It’s a tremendous amount of pressure because you want to do the right thing,” she noted, sometimes asking herself, “Did I give too harsh or too lenient a sentence?” Although confidentiality prevents her from discussing specific cases, it’s a safe bet that she has had her hand in many high-profile cases, including those that have transfixed the public in recent years.
Appointed respectively by New York City Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio, Melissa has overseen criminal proceedings in all five boroughs as the Administrative Judge and managed dozens of judges and thousands of cases as a Supervising Judge. “It was a big job!” she exclaimed. She also completed several terms as a criminal judge and spent 22 years in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office.
With retirement in the not-too-distant future and living in the COVID-19 present, Melissa yearns to return to her first passion: trial work. “I miss the courtroom,” she explained. In the recent past, she tried “difficult cases” in Manhattan’s criminal court. She takes seriously her commitment to uphold the law while demonstrating fairness, expertise and compassion. “There is a lot at stake.”
Before the pandemic required Melissa and her staff to work remotely on the most urgent matters – an especially challenging balancing act given the judicial system’s complexities – she loved nothing more than leading the courtroom’s activities. “Courts are not made to be electronic,” said the judge, who was sheltering at home with one of her sons at the time of this interview. She returned to Chambers in early June.
To decompress during this time of heightened stress, Melissa reads fiction, listens to music, exercises and takes her dog on energizing walks. Needless to say, she is greatly looking forward to restarting in-person proceedings as soon as safely possible.
Although 50 years have gone by since Melissa graduated from Chapin, she vividly recalls the momentous role the School played in her life. Arriving in the fourth grade from the Church of the Heavenly Rest School (now Trevor Day), she soon discovered a welcoming environment of caring teachers and new classmates just three blocks from her Upper East Side home. It helped that her older sister, Miranda Hook ’66, and two younger sisters, Melanie Jackson ’72 and Melinda Jackson ’73, also attended Chapin (as did her youngest sister, Marina Jackson ’77, and her mother, Nancy Jackson ’41).
Her voice softening with memory, Mellissa spoke about her “lasting friendships” and the “extraordinary fluency in English language and literature” she developed at 100 East End Avenue. “During my era, the English and History departments were extremely strong with wonderfully gifted teachers,” she commented, singling out Ruth Proffitt ’47, Florence McKinlay and Judith Phelps as influential figures. “Their guidance helped me with anything I wanted to do.”
When considering colleges, she chose impulsively. “It was the classic story. I was accepted to Radcliffe and my parents wanted me to go, but my boyfriend was at the University of Pennsylvania,” the judge shared. “The irony is I rejected Radcliffe not knowing he had already rejected me, but I don’t regret going to Penn,” she said with a laugh. Even though both her father and grandfather were prominent lawyers, Melissa had a different plan. “I wanted to be a writer,” she recalled. After graduation, she enrolled in a well-regarded program at her would-be college, the Radcliffe Publishing Course. Returning to New York with hopes of breaking into the industry, she landed an entrylevel job assisting literary agent Lois Wallace. After a year with the agency, she went to work for Amy Ephron in the movie business. Before too long, though, she grew “disenchanted with that world.”
Cautiously, Melissa began to think about law school, “I wasn’t completely keen on it, but I needed the intellectual challenge.” At Fordham, where she ultimately enrolled, she “fell in love with Constitutional law.” She also learned more about her eminent grandfather, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, the chief prosecutor at the Nuremburg trials of Nazi war criminals and the Attorney General under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. “I connected with my heritage,” she added.
As her distinguished career took shape, Melissa rose from attorney to judge, gaining a reputation for excellence. Along the way, she married and had three children, two sons and a daughter. “My remarkable children are my heart. They are my legacy,” said Melissa, whose husband, W. James Morgan, passed away in 2015.
With her decades of experience and warm, accessible personality, it’s no surprise that Melissa relishes her role as a mentor. “I am always giving guidance and advice to younger lawyers. I learned from my elders,” she said.
She also shared a few words of wisdom for Chapin students and alumnae: “Explore your interests through the process of elimination. If one door closes, another will open. I’m a living example of this,” she pointed out. “And remember to use your brain, get along with people and believe in yourself. You will find your path.”