ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A quiet courtroom is hardly the scene when district attorneys are prosecuting a case. They’re the powerhouses in the courthouse, and leaders of law — and they are rarely women. In Rochester, Sandra Doorley is an exception.

What You Need To Know

  • Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley is serving her fourth term with more than three decades of experience under her belt
  • She has roughly 170 employees and about half of her staff is female
  • When Doorley started practicing law in the '90s, she describes very few women being in the field, and her being differently due to the fear of maternity leaves in her future
  • When she became Monroe County's first DA, she acknowledges that there were many male law enforcement leaders that she'd hoped would respect her, and she's happy that now she's like 'one of the guys'
  • Doorley was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2016, and went from working in her hospital room, to being able to better serve her community because she knows how people's lives can turn on a dime

“There’s usually indictments to be reviewed and signed, waivers of indictments [and] predicate papers,” said Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley. “I keep track of my bureaus. I like to be in the courtroom. I like to do trials.

“It’s basically a 24/7 job.”

Her day-to-day may seem a little hectic.

“When I go home, I’m not cooking dinner, it’s takeout and probably bed at an early hour, and I just come in here and start again,” 

However, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

She’s serving her fourth term as district attorney, and refers to the courtroom and preparing for trial as her “happy place.” She admits her leadership style may be a little unique.

“A lot of DAs who have such a large office would be, I would say, concentrating on the administration and maybe the politics of the office,” Doorley said. “But in addition to that, I like to do the trials. I like to be in the courtroom.”

Doorley leads roughly 170 employees. Of those, roughly 95 are attorneys. She’s proud to say about half of her staff is female. 

“I look around at my office today, in 2024, and half of the attorneys on staff are women. And you know, I applaud them,” Doorley said, because that wasn’t always the case. She’s been practicing the law since the ‘90s, when she was the minority.

“At the beginning, when I started in the ‘90s, women were treated differently. There weren’t many of us in this office. I remember someone saying to me, ‘well, you know, you’re going to have babies.’ We’re going to put you over here in this bureau, and someone who started at the exact same time as me, we’re going to put him over there because we’re not going to deal with maternity leaves and such,” Doorley explained.

That didn’t stop her from making her mark on every department and bureau that she led.

“Most of the chiefs and the sheriffs in the area are men. And at first, I’m sure that they probably weren’t really sure what I was all about and how I was going to be working for a woman, because I’m the first woman who served as district attorney in this county, you know?” she said. “Now I would hope that they think of me just as, you know, one of the guys,” 

She’s conquered quite a bit in her more than 30 years of experience. She achieved a position she had never pictured, and then was faced with a new obstacle.

“In 2016, I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. It’s a blood cancer and it came out of the blue. I call it my third child because I did take, you know, about three months off work. It was my third maternity leave,” she smiled. “I actually still worked from my hospital room. This job, I think, kept me going. And, you know, to this day, I still take chemo just to make sure that it never comes back.”

Her health has been a way to connect more with the community.

“I think it also helps me relate to victims' families because, you know, their lives turn on a dime, just like mine did,” Doorley said. 

Whether it be in the office, in the courtroom, or wherever she might be, her priority to serve the community persists.

“Yes, I’m a woman, but I still want to do the very best job that I can,” said Doorley. “And I want people to judge me on my work product, the way I run the office and the service that I provide to the community.”