A Spotlight on Hudson Valley’s Campus Attorney
The Hudsonian recently interviewed Sandra McCarthy, the Student Senate attorney and campus judicial coordinator for Hudson Valley. She joined HVCC 15 years ago. She earned a law degree from the Albany College of Law in 1995 and specialized in Criminal Law practice. Prior to her Law degree, she finished her liberal arts at the Community College in Santa Monica, California, and the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.
Q: Had this always been your goal to become a lawyer?
S.M: “Well, no it hadn’t been. Actually, when I was in undergraduate school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I just took courses that I liked. So if you don’t know what you are going to do, pick courses that you like. Then when I was a senior, they said I have to pick a major. So I looked at my transcript and I had the most courses in American History. Then someone in SUNY suggested when I got my bachelor’s degree that I go to law school ‘cause a lot of history majors go to law school – I think that’s where the criminal defense comes in- The Founding Fathers, the Constitution, our rights and why we have them. You know as Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who have sacrificed liberty for safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
So to understand as a criminal law practitioner, we are defending the rights of people and why that’s important even if that mean sometimes guilty people go free. We are prioritizing our liberty over safety, which is the advice of our Founding Fathers that we make sure that we are still staying free, and not risking our own freedom just to put people in jail that we don’t like or afraid of. We are just making harder on ourselves; Drug War ’90’s we have less liberty – they can search your car, search your purse, pretty much what they want to do because we have sacrificed our liberties and safety – a lot of Hudson Valley students get caught up in that and there are lot of more authority of the police to do things because people have sacrificed their liberties for safety and now were kind of in a pickle.
“Being a criminal defense attorney is definitely important as you can see. Understanding American History, you get that. To really try to protect the constitution and keep the people free is very, very important to me. People go overseas and sacrifice their lives for our country and we want to make sure we are not giving away the rights here that we’re fighting for over there, for some other country to have; meanwhile we’re giving them away to our own government here. Criminal Law is making sure that people are still free and that our government is somewhat well kept in control like our Founding Fathers advised us to do.”
“I believe in the rights of poor people where it’s easy for the government to take the rights of poor people without really meaning to. I do a lot of work in public and family court and it’s sort of are looked out for and protected. And that’s what makes the society great is when you’re taking care of poorest and most vulnerable people.”
Q: Do you have a president you look up to since you talk a lot about Founding Fathers?
S.M: “Well I suppose Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and wrote a lot of our founding documents. Of course the big ones are Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy and those who were big civil libertarians who are willing to fight for the people. I like our current president, he’s doing a pretty good job.”
Q: Do you think of transferring someplace?
S.M: “No, I am settled here and have a family. I love working in Hudson Valley and I love what I do. When you find something you believe in, It’s important to keep doing it if you’re good at it.
Q: How long have you worked for Hudson Valley?
S.M: “It’s gotta be over 15 years. I worked for the Student Senate. 10 years ago, the school hired me in addition to the work with the Student Senate. What I do for the Student Senate is I’m here to answer legal questions; they [students] come in with issues like traffic tickets, landlords disputes, whatever their legal question is, they [the students] can come in and ask me. If I don’t know the answer because they are not all my areas I specialize in, I try to steer them someone that might know and try to call someone may know or how they could obtain free legal services, how to make a consumer fraud complaint with the attorney general, possibly get free legal services in domestic violence. If you want to get a divorce is something I don’t do but I do know places I can refer to. I don’t represent the students but just get them started.
Q: Do you work in courts?
S.M: Public Lawyer in Rensselaer County and Criminal Court. I am what they call the conflict defender – it’s like a public defender, as a part time job. I also work as a lawyer for children and sometimes adults in Family court. I have systems that cover different courts.
Q: What are the big challenges you’ve faced?
S.M: “Certainly my personal issues such as staying married for 20 years and having children and raising them through high school, things like that, how to keep your family intact and healthy, how to be a good parent.
Q: Are there challenges here at school?
S.M: “Well once in a while we get a student, who deems to be dangerous and threatening, but the school has to handle that and the school handles that very quickly and well. If a student wants a hearing, they are entitled to one. The school is kept safe and stable at all times. The safety of the students here are top priority and the rights of the students are looked out for. It’s gotta be a learning environment for students.”
Q: Advice for the students here at Hudson Valley?
S.M: “Follow the rules while you’re in campus. For classes, take what you like – like my career found me – I didn’t always know I was going to be a lawyer, but by doing something I liked, it came to me what the right path was to me. Didn’t even know in grammar school and now I’m pretty good at it. Seek advice that is over your head.
Sandra’s office hours are from 1:30pm – 5pm on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Siek Campus Center, Suite 120, and Room 121.