Horan conducts special ceremony
While many tears of anguish have no doubt been shed in Courtroom 4 at the county courthouse, only happy tears fell there on Friday afternoon.
Just after 3 p.m., Judge Marilyn Horan swore in her daughter, Lydia Horan Caparosa, who is now an official attorney.
About 15 family and friends dabbed at their eyes as a beaming Horan, seated in her chair on the bench, said to her daughter, “it's my pleasure and privilege to ask you to raise your right hand.”
Horan prefaced the swearing-in by thanking those gathered in the courtroom for supporting her family through the years in the good things and bad that they have experienced.
“And today is definitely a good thing,” Horan said.
Attorney Gerri V. Paulisick, Horan's next-door neighbor and good friend of the family, accompanied Caparosa to the courtroom floor and presented the motion for the 2017 University of Pittsburgh School of Law graduate to be admitted to the bar.
Horan then read the oath in a clear manner until the very end, when her voice cracked just a bit. She then notarized the document associated with the official court action with a flourish.
“It is done!” Horan shouted as those in attendance burst into applause and she came down to the courtroom floor to hug her daughter.
The friends and family then enjoyed cake and punch in Horan's chambers.
“I always felt she would end up here,” Horan said. “She had all the aptitude and interest.”
Both Horan and Caparosa earned their undergraduate degrees from Pennsylvania State University and their law degrees from Pitt School of Law.
“It's really exciting,” Lydia said of her mother swearing her into the bar. “It's a special moment.”
Horan also conferred her law degree upon her daughter when, as a Pitt law alumni, she sneaked onto the stage at graduation and stood to hand Caparosa her degree when her turn came.
“I had no idea,” Caparosa said.
She will kick off her career in law on Oct. 31 as a new attorney at the Erie firm MacDonald Illig Jones and Britton, where she will work in litigation and business service law.
“It's a profession I'm so proud to have her join me in,” said Horan. “She's going to be an amazing lawyer.”
Caparosa said she has a good role model in her mom, who served as a lawyer in Butler for years before being elected to the bench in 1998.
“She's a very fair judge and always prepared,” Caparosa said of her mother. “The attorneys know they'll get a fair shake in her courtroom.”
Caparosa's grandmother, Irma Caparosa, summed up the feelings of all the friends and family assembled in the courtroom.
“I'm just so happy for her,” Irma Caparosa said. “She deserves it. She works very hard.”
