I Wanted To Be Able To Deal With The Situation – That’s When I Decided To Become A Lawyer: An Interview with Edward King, Running for Civil Court Judge in Kings County

Tell me about life growing up. What was your family life like? How did you end up in the military?

I am the middle child of five children, born and raised in Harlem, New York City. I was raised by a single mother who was a state mental health care worker for children. One of her main goals for her own children were to make sure they were educated. She allowed for us to have both a public school and private school education. I was working at McDonalds (at the time) and walking down the street one day there was a recruiter. And he called me over and he showed me a video of people going airborne and doing different things as part of the military, and I volunteered for the United States Army.

How did you become inspired to enter law?

I had just gotten my license and I borrowed my sister’s car, and I was sitting in the car in the driver’s seat, parked. A car rolled by us, and then it backed up. I didn’t know it at the time but it was a plain clothes police officer, and he looked at me and said, “Do you have a problem?” So I said, “What are you talking about?” Then he said, “Well if you have a problem, I’ll solve it for you.” I looked at him, and thought twice; maybe I should not say anything, but I wanted to do something. I wanted to be able to deal with the situation because I thought it was unfair. That’s when I decided to become a lawyer, because I thought a lawyer would know what to say. And that propelled me. The person who encouraged me to get into private practice was my wife, Kathy.

Your wife Kathy King is a Supreme Court Justice. Tell me about your path to law, and some of your greatest achievements.

I attended Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C., came to New York, got my first legal job six-seven months after graduation and I worked for a judge by the name of Milton Tingling, who was a Civil Court judge in New York County. Thereafter I was hired as a Civil Court Judge's law clerk for Randolph Jackson in Kings County. He was elevated to The Supreme Court, and I was his law secretary for one year. After that I went into private practice in 1988. Since then I have represented people in real estate related litigation, tenant associations, housing development fund corporations, a myriad of people throughout the borough of Brooklyn.

Why are you a better candidate than your opponents?

You have to look at the experience of the person and what their philosophy is. My philosophy as a judge is 1) you have to learn how to listen to what the person is telling you, 2) you have to try to give them a fair shot, and 3) you have got to give them a just result. You need to use sensitivity as well as knowledge of the law, and I think I have a lot of that.