When the Honorable Katayoun (Kat) M. Copeland ’85 and the Honorable Elizabeth (Betsy) L. Toplin ’84 met as young girls at Baldwin, neither could have predicted they would one day serve alongside each other as U.S. Magistrate Judges in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Following decades of legal leadership on complementary sides of the courtroom — Kat as a veteran prosecutor and District Attorney, Betsy as a dedicated public defender — these lifelong friends officially took their seats on the federal bench this summer.

 

Kat took her oath as a U.S. Magistrate Judge on June 26. Just weeks later, on July 8, her former Baldwin School classmate Betsy took hers. The coincidence is remarkable. The friendship behind it makes the story even more extraordinary.

 

Reflecting on the unlikely convergence, Kat remarked that her 17-year-old self would probably laugh and ask, “Wait, we’re judges? We did not meet as colleagues or judges; we met as girls at Baldwin.” Discovering they would serve on the federal bench together, she said, was “the kind of ending you could never write for yourself because it would seem too improbable.” For Betsy, the milestone carries an equally personal significance. “The fact that I am embarking on this journey with Kat makes it all the more special.”

 

Kat brings more than three decades of experience in prosecution, public leadership, and private practice. After graduating from Bryn Mawr College and Temple University Beasley School of Law, she spent more than two decades at the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office. She rose to Deputy District Attorney, led the County’s Drug Task Force, and founded both the Treatment Court and Veterans Court, addressing challenges underlying individuals’ involvement in the criminal justice system. In 2018, the Board of Judges appointed her District Attorney of Delaware County.

 

Kat subsequently spent more than a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, serving in the National Security and Cybercrimes Unit and the Narcotics and Organized Crime Unit. She ultimately became Chief of the Criminal Division, supervising criminal charging decisions.

 

Before her appointment to the federal bench, Kat entered private practice at Lamb McErlane, where she handled complex commercial litigation, internal investigations, criminal defense, and compliance matters.

 

Betsy’s career was rooted in the same commitment to public service. A graduate of Columbia College and Temple Law, she began her legal career spending 10 years as an Assistant Defender with the Defender Association of Philadelphia. She was then at the Bronx Defenders for a year before spending 19 years as an Assistant Federal Defender in the Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, representing clients in complex and high-profile criminal cases throughout the region.

 

Her work extended beyond the courtroom. Betsy taught criminal law as an adjunct professor at Temple Law, presented regularly at Criminal Justice Act trainings, and participated in the Eastern District’s Supervision to Aid Reentry (STAR) Program. In 2018, the Federal Criminal Law Committee honored her with the Clifford Scott Green Bill of Rights Award for her work with STAR and her devotion to constitutional protections.

 

For all their professional accomplishments, neither Kat nor Betsy set out with the federal bench as the destination.

 

“When I first heard I had been selected, I was overwhelmed with gratitude and, to some extent, disbelief,” Betsy recalled. “Being a federal judge wasn't in my career plan.” At one point, she considered running for local judicial office in Philadelphia. But her career evolved in another direction when she moved out of the city and joined the federal defender’s office.

 

Kat’s path was similarly organic. Early in her career, her goal was straightforward: become the best prosecutor she could and serve her community. But decades of practicing law changed the way she viewed the role of a judge. “After decades practicing law, I came to appreciate the importance of having a fair, thoughtful, and independent person on the bench,” she said, recognizing that the skills and experiences she had developed could allow her to serve the justice system “in a different and meaningful way.”

 

The years that both Betsy and Kat spent working with people at pivotal moments — often difficult and sometimes life-altering ones — have also shaped the judicial philosophies they bring to the bench.

 

“I have learned to listen carefully, to assume nothing, and to try my best to meet people where they are,” Betsy said. For her, trust begins with listening. “I have found that the best path to establishing trust is to truly hear people, let them tell their story, and respect their position.”

 

That approach is especially important in criminal justice, where she believes it is essential to see beyond the charge or conviction. “People, even if they have committed a crime, are more than just that crime,” she said. “It's important to find the humanity in each person and treat all people with respect.”

 

Kat’s experience on the other side of the courtroom led her to a similar conclusion. “One of the earliest lessons I learned as a lawyer was that the law is ultimately about people,” she explained. While lawyers must know the law and advocate zealously, she emphasized, “we also must listen carefully and never lose sight of the human being behind the case.”

 

As a judge, she recognizes the weight of that responsibility. “A judge has enormous power over the lives of others,” Kat said. Behind every case, she noted, is “a person, a family, and a story that may be much more complicated than what appears in the record.”

 

Perhaps fittingly, both judges trace some of that perspective back to their earliest years at Baldwin.

 

“Attending Baldwin certainly helped shape my confidence, ambition, and voice,” Betsy said. She credits the School’s single-sex model with creating an environment where girls could become “strong, assured young women” while having the freedom to explore, take risks, and develop self-confidence.

 

Kat remembers something equally fundamental: leadership by girls was simply the norm. “At Baldwin, girls were the ones giving the speeches, leading the discussions, asking the questions, running the organizations, and sometimes challenging the conventional wisdom,” she recalled.

 

That experience became particularly valuable when she entered professional environments where women were less represented. “I didn't walk in thinking, ‘I don't belong here.’ Baldwin had already given me the more useful instinct of ‘Why wouldn't I?’ Baldwin didn't teach me to find my voice so much as it taught me to trust the one I already had,” she noted.

 

Both judges began their careers in a legal profession that looked markedly different for women.

Betsy recalled that early in her career, “much of the established bar in Philadelphia was comprised of men,” and “sexist commentary was, unfortunately, commonplace.” She believes the landscape has changed, noting that “the playing field is somewhat more level today.”

 

For Kat, that progress cannot end with just opening the door. Women must have opportunities to lead once they walk through that door. Her advice to young women entering demanding fields is direct: “Don't wait until you feel completely ready or until someone gives you permission. Know your worth, find your voice, take the opportunity, and — when you get there — hold the door open for the woman coming behind you,” she stressed.

 

For Baldwin students considering careers in law, both judges emphasize curiosity over convention. “I'd tell students to study what they love,” Betsy said. “Take art, history, music, chemistry - whatever you love. Law schools want interesting and interested people!”

 

Kat offers a similarly expansive view of what makes a good lawyer. “I would tell them not to become a lawyer simply because they are good at arguing,” she said. “Become a lawyer because you are curious about people, ideas, and how the world works — and because you care about what is fair.”

 

It is advice that seems to reflect both judges’ own journeys. Neither followed a straight line to the federal bench. Instead, their careers developed through years of service, advocacy, learning, and responding to opportunities as they arose.

 

Now, as Kat and Betsy begin their judicial tenures in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, their shared achievement is more than a remarkable professional coincidence. It is a full-circle moment for two women who began their journeys as classmates at Baldwin and, decades later, find themselves colleagues in service to the law.

 

“Baldwin prepared us to do great things, and one never knows what, where, or when those things may happen,” Betsy said. For Kat, she concluded, “My younger self would be pretty proud — not only of where I ended up, but of the fact that some of the people who were beside me at Baldwin are still beside me today.”