A Public Servant for Justice
Her mother worked for the U.S. Customs Service, and her father worked at the U.S. Postal Service in the same building. “They both had long federal government careers,” she says. “I always thought I would try public service.”
She may also have acquired some of her tremendous drive from her parents. In addition to advancing in their federal careers, her parents owned and managed two general merchandise stores and ran a small guest house below their home. Her mother also fashioned funeral wreaths and floral wedding favors. “I didn’t have to look beyond the four corners of my home for the best role models,” says Lewis. “I saw them day to day.”
She fell in love with law as a schoolgirl.
“My godmother was the first female judge in the Virgin Islands,” says Lewis. “The courthouse was just down the block from the Customs and Post Office building. I’d often sit in her courtroom waiting for my parents to get off work.” In the back of the courtroom, Lewis listened carefully to legal cases and analyzed them.
Provost Gil Stott, among others, encouraged her. “He would push me to go further, go higher, stretch my wings,” says Lewis. Her dream school was Harvard Law, which she attended after Swarthmore.
Lewis started in private practice, but soon entered public service as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. in 1986. One of her first cases involved the Freedom of Information Act. “I did the research, and the law was clearly against us,” she says. The agency counsel did not agree, pressing her to make arguments for the government anyway. When Lewis refused, supervisors were called in who supported Lewis. “We’re here so that justice is done,” Lewis says. “It’s not all about winning.”
She went on to receive four presidential appointments with Senate confirmation to top government positions including Inspector General and Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., becoming the first woman to hold that position. In 2011, she returned home to accept a federal judgeship, thus becoming the first female federal judge in the Virgin Islands. “I always wanted to return to the Virgin Islands and contribute in some meaningful way,” says Lewis. “This is like a dream come true.”
Lewis enjoys mentoring young law clerks, guiding them to be fair and follow the rule of law. The next generation continues to inspire her.
“Pursuing the cause of justice never gets old,” says Lewis.