Defense attorney Farooqi joins SB bench as nation's first Afghan-American judicial officer

Malalai Farooqi took her oath of office as San Bernardino’s newest commissioner Feb. 6, making her the first known Afghan-American judicial officer in the United States.

Commissioners are elected at the discretion of a court’s judges, rather than by voters or appointment by the governor. They handle case calendars and a courtroom, and can oversee trials at the consent of the litigants. Farooqi had previously worked as managing attorney at Scafiddi Law, and prior to that was at the Law Offices of Michael Holmes. She graduated from La Verne School of Law in 2012.

“Thank you. I want to take a moment to thank everyone,” Farooqi began her speech following her swearing of the oath to the state and federal constitutions.

“I know it's Friday afternoon, and you drove a really long way to be here, and I really appreciate that. Thank you to everyone who supported me. There are too many to list. It would take days. Thank you to the bench for their support. I am so grateful for how kind and welcoming you have been to me. Your advice has been invaluable. Thank you to my partners, Mike (Scafiddi) and Chris (Gardner). It hasn't always been easy, but there's nobody else that I'd rather do it with.

"Most of all, thank you, my husband, none of this would have been possible without you.

“And, I want to touch on one thing before we end the day, I am aware of the fact that I'm one of the first Afghan-American judicial officers in the country, and the weight and gravity of that is not lost on me today, to be able to elevate our community, to be able to represent hundreds of thousands of Afghan-Americans in this country, it will be the greatest honor of my life. I'm grateful for the Afghan-American community, for all the support that you've given me.

“But today isn't just about me. It's about all the young Afghan women and girls that have been forced back into the shadows. There's over 2.2 million of them that still can't get an education beyond the sixth grade, and I have thought of that every step of the way.

“I want to end on saying that, I begin this role with an immense sense of gratitude for the opportunities that I was given, but it also started with a heaviness and guilt that I carry because I was lucky enough to not be one of those 2.2 million women. I hope and I pray that they see the light again one day, And I hope that me beginning this journey reminds all the Afghan-Americans in our community of the importance of continuing to seek these roles. Thank you,” Farooqi.

Husband Kareem Abou-Ramadan

Kareem Abou-Ramadan

Kareem Abou-Ramadan, Farooqi’s husband, spoke of her care of his legal cases while he was recovering from surgery.

“I wrote a full on speech so I can get it right, because there's a lot I need to say. Bear with me. I get a little emotional here. I have to thank you. This is one of the proudest days of my life. I'm going to speak straight from the heart.

“I'm going to give you a story that I have not shared this intimately before with many people. It's the only way I know how to truly share the essence of who Malai (sic) is, and how likely she's going to succeed in her next chapter in life.

“December 6, 2018, I remember this day like it was yesterday. It was a normal, busy day, running my solo practice at court. In the morning, I had clients blowing up my phone. It was just another day.

“Around 1 p.m., I get a call from my doctor. He says, ‘Kareem, your results are in you have cancer.’

“‘What? I mean, that can't be right? I'm 33 years old. I'm six years into my career as a lawyer. I just married the best friend of my life two years earlier. Life was good.’

“I'm telling you the truth. The weight of that moment made my knees want to buckle. It's going to be hard. I'm going to get through it. I sat down on the edge of my chair and kept it together as best as I could. I called Malai. I told her.

“Malai is the bravest person I know. She uses her talents and skills better than anyone I've ever met. I've never seen pressure get the best of her. She excels in maintaining control of her emotions better than me. If you've seen her in the courtroom, she's always composed, level headed, possessing sound judgment, especially in difficult situations. She's practical, she's decisive, she's steady. When the moment is heavy, she rises.

“I believe everything that happens to you as a person happens for a reason. There is goodness in the trials and tribulations you face in life. With the right mindset, your challenges can sharpen you and make you stronger.

“I believe part of what makes Malai who she is stems from her earlier challenges in life. When Malai was six years old, she came to the United States as a refugee. She and her family, like thousands of Afghan families at that time, came here seeking safety, looking to escape the realities of the war. She arrived without knowing the language, without understanding the culture, without any roadmap except the will to adapt and survive. That kind of beginning leaves a mark.

“Less than one hour later, she was already in motion. She's working the phones. I can hear her voice, composed but firm: “No. Three weeks is too far out. That date doesn't work. We're coming in today, doctor.”

“If you've ever seen Malai in action, it's truly something to watch. She knows how to be assertive without being pushy. She connects with people instantly, on a human level. She's authentic, she's warm, making people feel seen and valued before you know it. Maybe some of you DAs, and you judges, know what I'm talking about. That's her special power. That's her magnetism. That's not something you learn. It's a God-given skill.

“She is humble, yet fierce. Principled, but deeply empathetic. She is a true leader.

“Three weeks later, I'm in the surgery room. It's a 13-hour operation. When I woke up, with tubes connected all over me, I couldn't speak. I could only communicate with a pen and paper. It was brutal. Thank God for morphine.

“The surgery was January 5, and if you practice criminal law, you know January is a very busy month. It’s full of cases you didn’t want to touch, you have to deal with after the holidays. Malai didn't want anything to worry me, because she already had a plan.

“Despite having one of the heaviest case loads in her office, making multiple court appearances a day, sometimes 10, or 12 appearances, she stepped in and ran my busy office. She made appearances for me. When she couldn't, she arranged for others like Mike and his team to help out. Thank you, Mike. She spoke to my clients, she learned my cases. She handled problems before they even reached me. Not a single issue went unaddressed. If something came up. She took care of it. All of this, while managing her own demanding workload, all while being there for me every single day. If she had to step away from work, she made sure I was never alone. That's who she is.

“I recovered quickly, but the story isn't about my recovery. It's about Malai’s character: selfless, principled, resilient. She doesn't wait for opportunities, she creates them. That trust is how she earned the role of managing attorney for Mike's office. She's the kind of person who shows up fully, no matter how heavy the moment is, and that's not something you turn on, that's how she's felt. I'm very blessed.

“Malai, you are the most talented person I know. I know you shy away from praise, but today it has to be said. It's true. Right now I want you to close your eyes for just one moment and soak this in.

“There is no one I know who has the qualities needed for this world more than you. You deserve this. Everything you earned in this life was earned, not given. Look around this room. This is what your discipline, your intelligence, your drive, your integrity, gave to you, and today, you hold the title as the first Afghan-American woman to serve as commissioner.

“Your name belongs to a national hero of Afghanistan, Malalai of Maiwand, the Afghan Joan of Arc. You have lived up to your namesake. I’m very proud of you.”

Jill Gregory

Prosecutor Jill Gregory

Prosecutor Jill Gregory spoke about Farooqi’s character.

“I was extremely honored to be asked to speak about Malalai today. One of the reasons that I know she's going to be a wonderful bench officer is because the first time I met her, she was opposing counsel from me. I've only ever known her as opposing counsel from me. She was a fierce advocate, quite fierce for her client in any professional conversation we ever had. She's also truly great at leaving that advocacy at the courtroom door and bridging the gap from the professional to the personal.

“So while I met her first as opposing counsel, I am honored to call her a friend. She's incredibly caring, she's astute, she gives great advice. She's authentic, truly authentic. She's not afraid to speak up for her beliefs. She's also good at communicating them. She's fun, she's funny. Her family is absolutely everything to her.

“She is clear eyed in her assessment of a situation. She gets right to the heart of the matter, which, by the way, that sentence was me trying to figure out the most polite way to say that she's got a great BS detector. She's good at navigating the situations that call for diplomacy and those that call for blunt straight talk.

“She is going to bring all of those traits to the bench and to the litigants that appear before her and our county will very much be the better for that,” said Gregory.

Michael Scafiddi

Attorney Michael Scafiddi joked that he brought a large folder for his speech—and two larger ones full of suggestions for Farooqi.

Michael Scafiddi, who brought her on to his firm, said he was first impressed with Farooqi when he saw her talking to another lawyer in 2014. He hired her on the spot months later, after a mutual acquaintance set up an interview between them.

“The process in the office is, you got to do like 17 interviews, right? We have a pretty detailed process. I mean, we even have the janitor talk to people, the people who clean the building. I sat there and talked to Malalai for about an hour, and she's telling me about her experience with Mike (Holmes), talking about University of La Verne and being on the Law Review,” Scafiddi said.

“She starts talking about her life, about her life story—I’ll talk about that in another minute or so—and I just sat there. The same feeling I had when I watched her negotiate and she goes, ‘What do you think?’

“I said, ‘I want to hire you.’

“I hired her on the spot. Right on the spot. No further interviews, no background, no calling Mike Holmes. First time I ever did that. I tell you, it was the best hire of my life, by far. The best thing I did.

“The reason it was the best thing I ever did, and this is the true point I want to talk about, is that every day when Mal (sic) came in, she exposed me to this dynamic woman, this young woman with strength and intelligence, and we talked about her life. We talked about being born in Afghanistan, okay, being raised in a Pakistani refugee camp. We talked about her religion, her culture. And for me, an Irish-Italian guy, Catholic guy from Brooklyn who had a Catholic church for Irish people, a Catholic church for Italian people, I grew up around that. I had no idea. I'd never been exposed to such an environment to someone like Malalai.

“She changed my worldview. She not only made me a better lawyer every day. She made me a better person every day. You may feel complete, fulfilled, and then you need someone who says, ‘Man, you don't know anything. You don't know anything.’

“What a life story, what a struggle. Just amazing. It's beyond amazing. So what Mal’s done for me and my family is, she's been the anchor of our office. We've hired one person to take part of her place. We still have to hire a second lawyer, because she was doing the work of two lawyers, and then probably another one. She's just an amazing human being, super intelligent, always willing—call her at 10 o'clock at night. She'll email back, literally 12:45. I do a lot of emails late at night and early morning, and she responds.

“She'll tell you the law. She'll send out memos. She's constantly training us. The thing that I'm most proud of is the efforts that she undertook over the last year to realize her dream to be part of our judicial officers. Picture now, from when I first met her, and her life journey, I check I don't think there's any bench officer with a similar past and life journey. I think she's the first in the history of the state of California. I did the math, I read up, so I think for that alone, it's an amazing journey.”

Scafiddi concluded by saying he’s gained and lost a lawyer, but kept Farooqi as a family member.

Chris Gardner

Their co-counsel, Chris Gardner, former elected San Bernardino Public Defender, spoke.

Chris Gardner, Farooqi and Scafiddi's law partner and former elected San Bernardino Public Defender, spoke to the cultural significance of the hire.

“I really want to congratulate the bench. I'm very proud of the San Bernardino County bench for what they did by hiring Malalai. I mean these things, we can talk about all the characteristics that Malalai possesses, which everybody who is here obviously knows already. I mean, it's going to make her a good bench officer. She's very smart, really, really smart. She's very dedicated, and to her, she does not like being unprepared for anything, and that's the kind of thing that I know is important for bench officers, for anything that we do.

“She also has a really strong commitment to seeking justice, whatever that justice is the problem at hand, whether it's the criminal defense attorney, things in her personal life, whatever it may be, when she's on the bench, working with litigants, working with lawyers, I am 100% convinced that she has all the qualities necessary to make everybody in that courtroom feel like they're being listened to and like they're getting a fair shot, which is the key, right?

“The fact of the matter is, she's got all those qualities.

“The other thing is, though, and this is something Mike touched on, I'm gonna hit a little harder. Today's historical. I mean, today is historic. I'm just a criminal defense lawyer, and I don't do a lot of research, but I did probably more research than Mike did. I make more Google attempts. Here's the thing.

“She is the first Afghan-American person to ever be on the bench in San Bernardino County. That's a big deal in and of itself.

“But she also is the first Afghan-American to ever be a bench officer in the state of California.

“The reality is, guys, and ladies and gentlemen, as far as I know, and I have done the research on this, I think she's the first Afghan born bench officer in the United States of America.

“Really, truly number one, or number two or number three, does it really matter? The fact of the matter is it’s a huge, huge accomplishment, and the fact of the matter is, it's really important, but this is the best part of it all: Nobody gave her the job because of that reason.

“She got the job because, as you've heard, she's really good at what she does, but it can't go unnoticed, and should not go unnoticed, that she did not get the job because she's the first, and that's equally as important.

“So, I'm really proud of the San Bernardino County bench. Really, what they did—I've been here 30 years. This is about as proud as I've ever been working in the San Bernardino County legal system. So, thank you all for that, and I hope everybody recognizes how big of an accomplishment this is,” Gardner said.

The courtroom was filled with approximately 100 people, including 16 judges and Kevin Marshall, Dean of the University of La Verne College of Law and Public Service.

“Malalai was one of ours and continues to be one of our treasures. We're so, so grateful for this moment for her,” Marshall said