Hon. Suzanne H. Segal

Magistrate Judge
Central District of California

Suzanne Segal’s involvement with the Berger Institute is essentially a result of the “great experience” she had at CMC as a student. She is proud to profess her strong, positive feelings about the school and her professors who continue to influence and support her even after her graduation. Ms. Segal, confesses that she is “please to have this opportunity to give back in some fashion to the school that had given [her] so much.”

The research that the Berger Institute engages in touches a “familiar chord” for Ms. Segal. She has experienced numerous challenges at the workplace while raising a family at the same time; as a Magistrate Judge in the Central District of California, Judge Segal would like major corporations to adopt more family-friendly policies and on-site quality child care as well. At the same time, Judge Segal imagines there to be hype about the provision of maternity leave as obligatory for all employers. Families and employees have a role to play in this too, she says. Segal points out that they must first do research to know the reach or breadth of both state and federal laws that exist to provide benefits to working families.

From the Berger Institute newsletter (Spring 2007, Vol 8., p. 12). Interview by Marya Husain '09.