Judge Penny Holds Court

October 24, 2008

 

Interviews with Judge Penny (run time 1 minute) MP3 version - iTunesU

First visit to the College of Law (run time 1 minute) MP3 version - iTunesU

Her voice is raspy and her drawl betrays her Southern roots. She's down to earth - even if she does sit in the tallest seat in the room. Penny Brown Reynolds isn't a typical judge and she doesn't preside over the typical TV judge show.

Reynolds (B.S. '91, J.D. '94) gives up her seat on the Fulton County State Court this month as she takes a seat on the bench of a widely syndicated half-hour show that sifts through issues pitting family members against one another.

Giving up the Fulton judgeship is only possible, she says, because it will allow her to continue to do the work she's done in her court for the last eight years. 

After serving as Gov. Roy Barnes' attorney from 1998 to 2000 - the first woman and first African American to hold the post - she was appointed by Barnes to the Fulton bench. She took her seat on Sept. 8, 2000. Exactly eight years later - to the day - "Family Court with Judge Penny" debuted.

"Fifty percent of new shows fail," Reynolds, 47, said recently from her office, which has a view of the Gold Dome a block away. "I'm in a job where if I'd stay here, I could've been here the rest of my life if I had done what I was supposed to do," she said. In agreeing to do the show, "I took the biggest risk of my life." 

But it wasn't her first big risk.

A way out

Reynolds came to Atlanta alone in 1987 from her hometown of New Orleans. Having grown up watching "Perry Mason," Reynolds always wanted to be a lawyer, after, she jokes, she got out of her Diana Ross phase. But she was less than successful on her first attempt to enter Georgia State's College of Law.

After asking a receptionist for an application, she was startled by the response.

"Where did you go to undergrad?" the receptionist asked.

"Undergrad? You mean college?" Reynolds replied. "I didn't go to college. I want to be a lawyer. I'm going to go to law school."

Reynolds was unaware an undergraduate degree was required for admission. 

In less than three years Reynolds came back holding a degree in criminal justice, but her time in school was every bit as hard-scrabble as her youth in Louisiana. 

Born in 1961 to a single mother in a predominantly Catholic community, Reynolds says she grew up ostracized and poor. The first of four daughters, she was named homecoming queen of her high school only to have the title yanked because "I did not have the right family." 

"It's difficult to keep self esteem and believe that you are somebody in the midst of that kind of ridicule," Reynolds said.

Reynolds said she was instilled by her mother, DeForest, with the belief that education would be her way out of her circumstance. She came to Atlanta "because of all the information that was out there about black people doing well here."

"And so I thought if I was ever going to make it in life, then maybe Atlanta would give me that opportunity," she said.

At times working three jobs and going to school at odd hours, Reynolds was able to finish her criminal justice degree quickly and enter law school. And though she sometimes lived out of her car in a parking deck, the promise of an education offered hope.

"What I could hold on to was the fact that I could get my education. I could do it at a reasonable cost," she said. "But for Georgia State being available and open to people like myself, I don't know if I would've been able to get my education in a traditional environment."

With a law degree in hand, Reynolds landed a job as an assistant state attorney general. She also worked as a DeKalb County prosecutor and for former Lt. Gov. Pierre Howard.

For a time, she was also a lawyer for the Georgia Commission on Women, as well as a member. She remains a staunch women's advocate, recently launching a foundation which will initially focus on helping single mothers obtain GEDs.

When Barnes, himself an attorney, was governor of Georgia, he appointed her as his chief legal counsel.

"As you might imagine it was a difficult task being my lawyer, and she was always up to the task," Barnes said. "I have all the confidence that she will be successful in her new career. And Penny I think is a good example of what happens when you have that innate intelligence and you have a desire to succeed."

Holding court

The September debut of Reynolds' show was not her first national television appearance.

In 2007, she was asked by producers of "Dr. Phil" to appear as a guest on a show involving postnuptial agreements. Reynolds' appearance as an advocate for wives was so well received, by the time she reached home, she had an offer from "Dr. Phil" producers for her own show.

She turned it down, she said, to work on finishing her degree at Interdenominational Theological Center, continue to help care for her husband's aging parents and to stay on the court.

"With all the money and the notoriety - Dr. Phil would've had a built-in audience for me that one could only hope for - I listened to the voice of God and God said you have to make your family your priority," Reynolds said. "And I did that."

But when the show aired, Reynolds said, a number of production companies began to approach her with offers for a show. She finally settled with a female-run company called 44 Blue Productions. The conditions: that Reynolds would be part-owner of the show and get to finish her study at seminary.

When the show began taping this summer, Reynolds made another, although unexpected, national TV appearance.

She was taping at a Los Angeles studio when California was hit by a magnitude 5.4 earthquake. A clip of the taping was widely circulated on the Internet showing Reynolds ducking under the bench and parties to the case she was hearing taking cover under tables.

Reynolds said tape of the quake provided an untold amount of free publicity, even ending up on the NBC Nightly News.

No such thing as "failure"

Reynolds plans after leaving the bench in Fulton County to continuing working at her husband's College Park church, the Midway Baptist Church, where she is an associate minister. She also wants to expand her foundation to provide programs for men and children, and perhaps hold conferences to discuss family struggles. 

She says the show, the church, and the foundation are ways of fulfilling her calling to spread hope and inspiration.

"What was the very essence of why I was created? ...So that I could provide people with an understanding that nothing comes easy in life. So that I could let people be inspired to understand that there is dignity in every aspect of your life," she said. "Everybody makes mistakes and people's entire lives should not be judged by the mistakes they've made, but what they believe the future holds for them."

Reynolds doesn't use the word "failure," instead referring to life's missteps as "learning lessons." If the show folds, she says, "then maybe I'm supposed to do something else. 

"And this is just a way of getting me where I need to be," she said.

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If you want to watch: "Family Court with Judge Penny" airs in Atlanta on CW affiliate WUPA at 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. weekdays.

On the web: http://www.famcourt.com/

Contact: Michael Davis
University Relations
404-413-1361
mdavis6gsu.edu