May 6, 2001 – Fifty years ago, two young Virgin Islanders returned home and began separate careers that would build each of them honored reputations in the community, along with the respect of their colleagues.
Come June 2, those colleagues, members of the Virgin Islands Bar Association, will take the opportunity to honor the two legal stalwarts, attorneys Edith Bornn and Frank Padilla.
Padilla is fond of joking that he has had a long "career in lying." But it is obvious that he has taken his profession seriously from the time he chose it.
He was inspired by his stepfather, R.H. Amphlett Leader, a lawyer and community leader well known for his generosity as well as his legal expertise. Leader was godfather to about 35 children and endorsed loans for some 55 people. "He sent lots of people to college," Padilla said.
After attending high school at the public school in Christiansted, Padilla moved to the mainland to study at Howard University. He received his undergraduate degree in 1942. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he returned to St. Croix and taught high school briefly. Then it was back to the mainland, where he went to New York University and graduated from law school in 1952. About a year later, he was back on St. Croix once again and ready to hang out his shingle.
In those days, there were 10 or 15 attorneys in private practice on the island, he said.
Padilla said he stopped practicing criminal law "years ago" because he couldn't bring himself to defend a client if he knew the person was guilty.
His practice today focuses on "probate, deeds and things like that." He has no intention of locking up his office. "What am I going to do if I retire?" he asks. "Do nothing?"
Since 1953 he has been married to Leelia Padilla. They have one son, two daughters, four grandsons and three granddaughters.
Padilla's St. Thomas contemporary, Edith Bornn, has been a force to be reckoned with virtually all her life.
After graduating from Columbia Law School, early on she had two plum positions — clerking for District Court Judge Herman E. Moore and conducting research for the Caribbean Commission in Trinidad, a post that entailed traveling around the region.
She left the job with the commission "because my father got ill, and some one of us had to come back to the island."
Her high school classmate Clarice Bryan narrowly beat Bornn out of the distinction of being the first woman lawyer on the island, but Bornn likes to point out that she was in private practice, whereas Bryan worked for the government.
"September '55 is when I opened my law practice," she said.
Even before that, she began her life-long history of community involvement.
She joined the Women's League of St. Thomas in 1953 and was active years later is its push for establishing a Family Court.
She remembers helping to get the judges' cooperation as George H.T. Dudley Sr. and Louis Hoffman worked to establish the V.I. Bar Association, and she served for years on its Admissions Committee. "That's where I got my reputation for being very strict," she said. Many papers were returned because of spelling and grammatical errors.
And she helped form the League of Services Organization to provide free legal services to those who couldn't afford to pay. She was it president for several years. Later, she helped found the Women's Resource Center and again served as president for a few years.
In the 1980s, she became the voice of the League of Women Voters in the Virgin Islands as it took the lead in championing environmental protection. She served on the civic group's national board in 1982 and was one of three members who journeyed to Moscow to speak to a women's group there, an experience she remembers as a highlight of her involvement.
She also served on the International Women's Committee in the United Nations Decade of Women, from 1975 to '85, and over the years has been appointed to numerous local commissions and task forces.
Like Padilla, Bornn can't imagine herself "doing nothing." Although she officially retired at the end of last year, she continues to wrap up pending cases. And, she said, "I suspect I'm going to be very active" in environmental work.
The V.I. Bar Association's June 2 gala will also recognize the achievements of the past 25 presidents of the organization. From 1976, in chronological order, they are: Henry L. Feuerzeig, Julio A. Brady, Robert Ellison, James E. Dow Jr., Adriane J. Dudley, R. Eric Moore, Ronald T. Mitchell, Henry C. Smock, Derek M. Hodge, Rhys S. Hodge, Patricia D. Steele, James L. Hymes III, Vincent A. Colianni III, Joel H. Holt, Andrew L. Capdeville, Douglas L. Capdeville, James A. Hurd Jr., Bernard C. Pattie, Elizabeth Clark, Richard H. Hunter, Denise Francois, R. Oliver David, Veronica J. Handy, B. Patricia Welcome, and Frank Schulterbrandt.
The event is billed as the "first annual Recognition and Awards Banquet." It will be at the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort on St. Thomas. Tickets are $75. For more information, call the Bar Association office at 778-7497.
