Berks Judge Linda Ludgate remembered as a compassionate, hard-working jurist and a trailblazer

The same qualities that made Linda K.M. Ludgate a good person — concern for others, diligence and work ethic — are what made her a good judge, according to her colleagues in the Berks County legal profession.

“She excelled as a judge in large part because she cared deeply about people,” retired Berks Judge Arthur Grim wrote in the condolences section below her obituary on the Kuhn Funeral Homes website.

“She was principled, committed, tenacious, and if the situation warranted it, not afraid of a good fight,” wrote Grim, who described Ludgate as not only as a valued colleague but a friend for over a half-century. “But her kids and grandkids were her pride and joy and were there for her on her journey through life. She will be missed.”

Ludgate died Sept. 26 in Reading Hospital. She was 82.

“What most stands out about Judge Ludgate was her passion for the law, for making sure she was getting it correct, making sure she held not only herself but the lawyers who came before her to the highest standard,” said Berks Assistant District Attorney Meg McCallum, who started her career as Ludgate’s law clerk 18 years ago.

District Attorney John Adams prosecuted and defended numerous cases in Ludgate’s courtroom early in his career, first as an assistant district attorney in the early 1990s and later as a defense attorney.

When he started out as a prosecutor, Adams was one of two assistant district attorneys assigned to handle general criminal cases presided over by Ludgate.

He described her as diligent and inquisitive about the cases assigned to her.

“She was very fair,” he said. “She was very much on top of the cases coming into her courtroom. She was always very diligent, doing as much as possible to see those cases were resolved in an expeditious manner.”

Adams said Ludgate seemed to relish serving on the criminal side of the court.

“I think she brought to the bench some different life experiences,” he said. “She was very involved with some organizations outside of the courts, such as Safe Berks (formerly Women in Crisis). She was very passionate about her work and very passionate about some of the cases that were heard in front of her.”

Ludgate took a non-traditional path to a law career.

Born in Rochester, N.Y., the youngest of 14 children, she married her husband, Robert B. Ludgate Jr. in 1961. She attended a community college in Rochester as a mother of four in the early 1970s.

The family moved to Pennsylvania when Robert’s civil engineering career took him to Reading. She enrolled in Alvernia College, now Alvernia Universityy, graduating magna cum laude in 1977.

She enrolled in Temple University Beasley School of Law at age 38 and received her law degree in 1980.

After graduation she worked with Central Pennsylvania Legal Services, then with the Berks County Public Defender’s Office and in private practice focusing on family, criminal defense and business law.

Elected to the county bench in 1989, she was subsequently retained by voters for two additional terms. She retired at the end of 2012 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.

While serving in the criminal division, Ludgate was appointed to the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing, a legislative agency responsible for advancing effective, humane and rational policies that promote fairer and more uniform decisions at sentencing and parole, as well as the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Probation and Parole.

She was an active member of the National and International Associations of Women Judges, the Berks County Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association. She was also a founder of the Berks  chapter of the American Inns of Court, an association of legal professionals promoting excellence.

As a member of the Pennsylvania Trial Judges Association, she chaired the Meet Your Judges Forum.

In addition to advocacy and policy formation roles, Ludgate was an educator. She was a faculty member of the National Judicial College, which teaches courtroom skills to judges, and Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency’s Victim Assistance Academy.

The latter provides victim service professionals with training, workshops and networking opportunities that support their role in serving victims of crime.

Reading defense attorney James M. Polyak said he learned a lot while he was assigned to Ludgate’s courtroom decades ago as a young prosecutor.

“As a judge she was compassionate when the case called for it, but always fair to both sides,” Polyak said. “She had a very strong work ethic. She kept our jury out in deliberations past midnight on one occasion because she wasn’t ready to call it a day.”

Reading defense lawyer Allan Sodomsky said Ludgate was a good jurist, even though she could be tough at times, and was a trailblazer beyond simply gender.

“There’s no doubt she was a trailblazer on the bench,” he said.

He first met Ludgate when he was an intern in the DA’s office in summer 1982 and Ludgate was a public defender.

Sodomsky credited Ludgate with helping shape the county’s judiciary into the progressive system it has become.

“She did things that brought Berks County along” he said. “I practice in a lot of counties and Berks is innovate in so many things, and she was one of our innovators.”

McCallum, supervisor of the DA’s domestic violence and child abuse section, served as Ludgate’s law clerk for a little more than a year before being hired as an assistant district attorney in October 2006.

She said she’s grateful for women such as Ludgate, who blazed the trail to what had been a male-dominated field.

“As a young girl I was never told I couldn’t do anything; there were women before me who were trailblazers,” McCallum said. “Reflecting on her life, to know what she had to do to get there and become a judge, I definitely think of now, as a mother, with even a greater sense of awe.”

McCallum said she was born and raised in Schuylkill County’s coal region and decided at a young age she wanted to be a lawyer.

She enrolled in Alvernia University as a criminal justice major, which is how she first heard of Ludgate.

“As part of the major I had to do an internship,” McCallum said. “My adviser at the time suggested I reach out to Judge Ludgate because she was an Alvernia graduate. I interned with her between my junior and senior years.”

Only after starting law school did McCallum fully realize how much of a feat it was for Ludgate to have gone through college and law school and working as a lawyer while successfully raising four children.

After graduating from law school, and right before McCallum started her clerkship, McCallum married her husband, Jamie. Ludgate presided over the nuptials.

The judge visited the McCallums after the birth of their two daughters, demonstrating how she cared for her clerks not only as helpers but people, Meg McCallum said.

“She always supported us and would reach out randomly letting us know she was proud of us,” McCallum said.

Source: Berkshire mont