In 2000, Judge Carolyn Engel Temin FA’55, L’58 received the Anne X. Alpern Award by the Pennsylvania Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession.
Early in her career, Carolyn Engel Temin FA’55, L’58 became the first woman lawyer to be hired by the Defender Association of Philadelphia, where she was responsible for parole and probation hearings. She then went to work for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office, serving in a variety of capacities, including as a homicide prosecutor. In 1983, she was elected to Philadelphia County’s Court of Common Pleas and presided over thousands of cases during her 30-year tenure. Temin was the first woman elected president of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges.
After stepping down from the bench in Philadelphia, Temin served in Sarajevo as an International Judge on the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her cases involved organized crime, public corruption, and war crimes, and included cases transferred from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Temin has also lectured, taught, and consulted on legal issues and judicial systems in Serbia, Honduras, the Republic of Georgia, Tunisia, Thailand, and Barbados.
In 2018, when progressive prosecutor Larry Krasner became Philadelphia District Attorney, he appointed Temin, then 83 years old, to be his First Assistant District Attorney.
“Judge Temin is a criminal justice trailblazer and I’m honored that she has rejoined the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office,” said Krasner.
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