Newly appointed justice’s dedication to service just one of many attributes

Patricia Lee was picking up her daughter, Brianna, from high school wrestling practice last month when her phone rang.

The caller ID showed it was Gov. Steve Sisolak, meaning she felt obliged to pick up, Lee, 47, said. She answered, and Sisolak’s message was short and sweet.

Sisolak called Lee to inform her she was being appointed to the Nevada Supreme Court.

“He congratulated me, and he was very gracious,” Lee recalled the outgoing governor telling her. “He said he’ll be watching from afar, and then he hung up.”

Lee, a 20-year veteran attorney and partner at the Las Vegas-based Hutchison & Steffen Attorneys, will fill the seat on Nevada’s high court left vacant by Justice Abbi Silver, who retired in late September. Lee will be sworn-in Dec. 21, making her the first Asian American and first Black woman to sit on the bench.

Soon after Sisolak hung up, Lee was so overcome with emotion she felt the need to pull over her car. Brianna, meanwhile — like most teenagers nowadays — was texting seemingly everyone she could to break the news. But at least that meant son Devin, 12, and husband Ronnie were in on the news too.

Fighting back tears even weeks afterward, Lee said it was a moment with her daughter she would never forget.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better moment in my life because it was so special that she got to hear, firsthand, from the governor that you got the appointment,” she said. “Meanwhile, she’s on a texting campaign. She texted my son, she’s texting my neighbor. Anyone whose number she had, she’s texting. So even before I got off the call, like, 10 people knew that I had gotten the appointment.”

The appointment of Lee, who has spent most of her legal career in commercial litigation and business law, is seen as a “home run” for activists in the legal community. In 2013, Lee was the recipient of the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Publico Award for her volunteer work for the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, which gives free legal advice on civil matters.

Lee has been volunteering with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada for roughly 15 years, said Barbara Buckley, the nonprofit’s executive director and her longtime mentor. And Lee has taken on cases ranging from helping the mother of a deceased Iraq War veteran retrieve his remains, to representing abused children and defrauded senior citizens.

All for free, while still maintaining a full-time private practice, Buckley emphasized.

“Over the years, she took case after case, after case,” Buckley said. “It shows an extraordinary commitment to justice and ensuring that people who are the most vulnerable don’t get lost in our legal system.”

What’s really impressive about Lee, Buckley said, was her ability to convince work colleagues to take on pro bono cases as well. In addition to her law practice, Lee sits on the Legal Aid Center’s board of directors, and, in the process, has convinced dozens of interns, paralegals, associates and even partners to offer to work pro bono cases.

“Pro bono is mandatory in my life and for anybody who works with me, it’s also mandatory in their lives,” Lee said. Everyone’s been great about taking cases, but we try to have every person in the firm have at least one pro bono case open at all times.”

Lee will relinquish her board seat in addition to her partnership at Hutchison & Steffen before she’s sworn in, she said. She’s worked at the firm since graduating from law school at George Washington University in 2002.

What Lee will miss most about working at her firm is coordinating its internship program, she said. Lee herself was the recipient of scholarships and youth engagement programs growing up in Lompoc, Calif., a town roughly 160 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Lee was born in Korea to an African-American father serving in the U.S. Army and a native Korean mother. After a brief stint in northern Ohio, her family settled in Lompoc, where she would stay throughout her childhood. There, she began getting involved with the Upward Bound program, which helps low-income and prospective first-generation college students continue their education.

Because of that program, Lee said, she was accepted by all five schools to which she applied. Ultimately, she settled on the University of Southern California, from which she would graduate in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and communications.

Soon after graduating, Lee simply felt the need to give back the way others helped her, she said.

“I feel it’s a little bit arrogant to have been helped every step of the way by amazing godsent people, and just say ‘OK. Well, I made it. Good luck, everyone,’ “she said. “That’s just not how you do it.”

That dedication to service also translated to a dedication to equal justice for all, said Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron Parraguirre, who said Lee was a skilled legal practitioner.

Unlike most other courts in the state, the Nevada Supreme Court is a panel of seven judges, meaning the justices must collaborate with each other before coming to a consensus on a ruling. And Lee appears primed to hit the ground running, Parraguirre said.

“I’ve known Patty for years,” said Parraguirre, who started on the bench in 2004. “Quite frankly, she’s got the most delightful personality and demeanor, and that’s going to lend itself so well to the collaborative process we’ve got.

“I don’t think she’s going to have a problem acclimating at all,” he continued. “The resources that she has available to her up here are wonderful. … It’s kind of an overwhelming process at first, but there’s so much support. We’re all here to help to make sure she succeeds.”

In many ways, Lee describes her historic appointment as somewhat of a full-circle moment. Shortly after she graduated from USC, Lee was volunteering at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. And it was during that time she was introduced to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, who was helping establish a computer lab nearby.

Lee said she was mostly too shy to speak with Parks, but one day Parks apparently couldn’t help but take notice.

“She just looked at me one day, we were talking, and she was like, ‘So this is what you’re going to do for the rest of your life? You’re just going to work at this museum?’ “

Law school was somewhat on Lee’s radar, so she mentioned that as a possibility. Then Parks chimed in again: “Well, baby, if you want to go to law school, then you go to law school.”

It was settled.

“When Rosa Parks tells you to go to law school, you go to law school,” Lee said.

Without Parks’ push, Lee admits she probably wouldn’t have had the wherewithal to apply for law school, let alone in Washington, D.C. And now, Lee will be in a position no other Black or Asian American woman has ever been in.

That, Lee thinks, is something Parks would be proud of.

“Representation absolutely matters,” Lee said. “I know that this is bigger than me. I’m really excited for myself, of course, but I understand what it means to see someone you look up to and there’s finally somebody who looks like us who maybe has some shared experiences.

“I understand the magnitude of that, and it’s really just humbling. It’s very humbling.”