‘Epitome of a leader’: Colleagues, friends praise COA Judge Robb into retirement

It was about 20 years ago — somewhere around 2003 or 2004, as Kris Sakelaris recalled — and the Indiana State Bar Association’s Women in the Law Committee was hosting its annual retreat.

As the longtime chair of the retreat, Sakelaris remembers some “baby lawyers” at this particular outing, which is kept to a small enough attendance that everyone gets a chance to know each other. Some of those new lawyers, Sakelaris said, were sitting at a table with Court of Appeals of Indiana Judge Margret Robb, who at that point had been on the bench for about five years.

“I’ll never forget that one of the young lawyers was keeping a diary,” Sakelaris recalled. “‘I can’t believe I was sitting with a Court of Appeals judge, and she was human just like the rest of us!’”

It’s those kind of stories — where Robb prompts both admiration and a sense of humility — that permeated a 25-year career on the appellate bench.

Robb retired, effective June 16, and has been granted senior status.

“It’s been a good run,” Robb said in an interview on the Indiana Lawyer Podcast. “I loved being a judge.”

She added with a chuckle: “I was honored to be able to do it — no pun intended.”

Robb’s professional accomplishments include honors from the Indiana Legislature, awards from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, her alma mater, and numerous recognitions for her work supporting women in law.

Robb may be best known as the first elected female chief judge of the Court of Appeals. She was appointed to that role in 2011.

But beyond the professional achievements, Robb’s friends and colleagues see her as an advocate and willing mentor.

Current Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert Altice commended Robb for being well connected, saying she’s the reason the court is able to get great speakers for in-house continuing legal education events.

And her reputation extends well beyond Indiana, Altice said, as evidenced by how in-demand Robb is at CLE events.

“About every other person stops her and wants to talk to her,” he said.

Court of Appeals Judge Cale Bradford said one of Robb’s best qualities is her ability to get the best out of everyone around her.

Bradford, another former chief, said Robb encouraged him to get involved in things he normally wouldn’t have, including the Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal. Robb also makes it a point to encourage other people to consider different points of view, Bradford said, even circulating her issues of The New York Times Magazine.

“She’s the epitome of a leader,” he said.

‘She’s always sort of reaching back’

Sakelaris has known Robb since 1998, when Sakelaris became a magistrate judge and traveled to Indianapolis for a meeting.

“We just became friends,” she said.

Sakelaris, now executive director of the Hammond Legal Aid Clinic, said Robb has always supported the Women in the Law Committee retreats and has been a mentor to many of the women on the committee.

Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush has known Robb for 40 years, starting when they were both new lawyers in Lafayette.

“We were young lawyers having kids and kind of looking out after each other,” Rush recalled.

Rush noted that Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981, three years after Robb graduated from IU McKinney.

“You have to see people in black robes to think you can actually be it,” the chief justice said.

When she applied for the Indiana Supreme Court position, Rush said Robb was encouraging and added that she has mentored many judges and lawyers over the years.

“She’s always sort of reaching back,” Rush said.

Coming out of law school, Robb said there were concerns about what people would think if a female attorney was traveling with a male partner out of town for trial.

The advice she remembers for aspiring attorneys like herself back then: “Make sure the boys get the jobs first.”

There will always be challenges, Robb said, but she can also see how the landscape has changed for women in the law.

Now, she said her advice for those young lawyers is that it’s OK to be themselves.

“They don’t have to be somebody else to succeed,” she said.

Baseball and the law

One other thing those around Robb learn quickly: She loves baseball.

Robb grew up in a baseball family, she said, and she incorporates the sport into some CLE presentations.

Altice said he considers himself a big baseball fan, too, yet he still learned some things about the game during a recent lecture Robb gave in Fort Wayne, where she compared baseball to being a lawyer. Of course, they had to catch a Single-A TinCaps game afterward.

There’s an old saying in baseball that the best hitters still only succeed about 30% of the time — a stat Robb said she brings up in her presentations.

“Lawyers probably should do a little better than 30%,” she said with a laugh.

The point, Robb said, is understanding that the practice of law is a lot of short races. Some of them will be successes, and some won’t.

‘A reflective time’

Robb spent the days leading up to her retirement cleaning out her office and going through stacks of paper.

“It’s really been a reflective time,” she said, “going through files, deciding what to keep, what to not keep, notes that I got from people, thoughts that people would send me.”

It was fun to go back and think about those times, she said.

Now, aside from being granted senior status — which was effective June 17 — Robb said she’s still offering her help on discipline cases and with the trial courts in Tippecanoe County.

“I’m looking for new challenges,” she said, “new things to do, new things to learn.”

To hear Robb’s full interview with the Indiana Lawyer, find the June 14 podcast episode at theindianalawyer.com or a podcast app.•