PrintAngel Taveras
Age: 39
Graduated: Georgetown University Law Center, 1996
Bar admission: Rhode Island, 1996; Massachusetts, 1997; New York, 2003
Job: Taveras Law Offices, Providence; part-time judge, Providence Housing Court
Practice areas: Civil litigation, election law
Raised in a working-class family of Dominican immigrants in Providence, Angel Taveras went to Harvard University and then on to Georgetown Law before returning to Rhode Island to make a name for himself as a civil litigator, an upstart candidate for Congress, a leader in the Latino community and now a part-time judge in Providence's Housing Court. Off the bench, he is currently representing several of the state's largest law firms before the Rhode Island Supreme Court in a case against against Massachusetts personal-injury lawyer James Sokolove. Taveras' clients are fighting to keep Sokolove's firm from expanding over the border into Rhode Island. Lawyers Weekly's Julia Reischel asked Taveras about the case and his role as a judge.
Q. How did you become involved in the Sokolove case?
A. My clients were referred to me by another lawyer that I knew. I found the case itself very interesting, and it's a lot broader than just Sokolove in many ways. It's about what lawyers from other states can do in terms of advertising in states where they don't have a license. That, I think, is really the issue. And there is a second issue: the question of what constitutes an actual law office. I can't really say more than that about the case, because it's currently under consideration by the court.
Q. How did your appointment to the bench come about?
A. I was very fortunate. Mayor [David N.] Cicilline nominated me to serve as an associate justice on the Providence Housing Court. I had an ethics opinion regarding what I can and cannot do, because I do have some practice involving the city, and I wanted to make sure that that is OK. It's been a real pleasure, though it's been a big challenge given the housing crisis and foreclosure crisis have hit Providence particularly hard. There are a lot of abandoned and vacant houses in Providence. The last time they did an inventory, there were over 900. That was about a year ago. There's a big challenge in terms of how do we deal with that issue, particularly when there's no defendant to be present in court.
Q. What do you do as a judge when there's no defendant in a housing case?
A. We try to find out who the owner is. If the bank has taken over the property, then the city goes after the bank. The biggest problem is the time period between the bank taking over the property and the owner basically abandoning it ... . Until foreclosure, the bank is not really the owner. That's the issue. And it can take months to get a foreclosure. Sometimes the banks will delay it. But the good thing about the banks is that, for the most part, they have been pretty responsive to addressing the housing code violations. And that's been a good thing.
Q. What can you no longer do as a practicing attorney now that you are a judge?
A. I cannot, obviously, represent anyone before the Housing Court. And I can't represent anyone before an agency that has its appeal to the Housing Court. If I have any clients that have any issues before the Housing Court, I cannot be involved at all. Generally, what I've tried to do beyond that is to limit anything related to housing in my practice, which is fine.
