Like mother, like daughter

By comparison, Dubow had no children when she attended Penn Law School. In her 1984 graduating class, 76 of 141 were women.

Dubow began her career as a commercial litigator. Seven years later, in 1992, she was named deputy city solicitor under Mayor Ed Rendell. In 2000, after two years of tax law, she went to Drexel.

There was no "defining moment" for her judicial quest, Dubow says. It was a gradual process.

"As a lawyer, the valued skills are looking at a situation in black and white and doing what's best for your client. As a judge, you look at the entire picture. The longer I practiced law, the more I realized my personality was more like a judge's."

Says Beck of her fourth-born: "She's fair and honest and smart - all wonderful qualities of a good judge."

Dubow had put in years of preparation, negotiating squabbles between her son, Benjamin, now 19 and a sophomore at Penn, and daughter, Rebecca, 16, a junior at Delaware Valley Friends School.

"I had to make credibility calls and impose punishment," she says. "It reinforced my ability to have a sense of both sides of an argument and to not take anything at face value. I could always tell who was lying."

To prepare for her campaign, Dubow took off a full year. In May, she won both the Democratic and GOP primaries. The following month, Gov. Rendell appointed her to fill a vacancy in Family Court. In November, she was elected to a full 10-year term.

Dubow says her judicial philosophy is similar to that of her parenting.

"On the one hand, people should know what the rules are and that there are consequences for breaking them. On the other hand, they shouldn't be horrendous consequences.

"I give a fair hearing to everybody in my courtroom, I follow the law, and I show compassion when necessary."

With Dubow building the family's pistil-bearing judicial dynasty, will the gavel be passed to a third generation?

Her daughter will decide that for herself, Dubow says. If, some day, she does heed justice's siren call, it's a safe bet that shopping for a robe won't be on her to-do list.

The Beck women recycle.