By STEPHEN W. HOUGHTON II
Among the dignitaries speaking at the dedication of the Robert
H. Jackson Center on May 16 will be Melissa Jackson, Justice Jacksonás
granddaughter.
Ms. Jackson, 51, said she will make some brief remarks on behalf of the Jackson
family before the talk by Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
“We are so honored to have the Chief Justice here for the dedication
of the center,” said Ms. Jackson who is a third generation lawyer.
As a lawyer I am personal and professional thrilled he will be coming,áá
she said.
“Personally, it is an honor to have a member of our family honored so
highly,” Ms Jackson said. “Objectively, I understand the importance
of his (Robert Jackson's) contributions to the law.
“He was a icon for our profession,” she said. “People even
now talk about his contributions. He was a prosecutor, a supreme court justice,
an international prosecutor, a county lawyer. He represented many of the best
parts of the law.”
Ms. Jackson is Deputy District Attorney of the Rackets Division of the Kings
County (Brooklyn) District Attorney's Office.
“I am a career prosecutor,” she told The Post-Journal. “The
rackets division prosecutes organized crime, fraud, cyberporn, homicides,
and white collar crime.”
As the chief of her division, Ms. Jackson leads a staff of 27 prosecutors.
Greg Peterson, president of the Jackson Center said, “We are very pleased
that Melissa will be attending this important event. We have been fortunate
since our founding that the family of Robert H. Jackson has taken a deep interest
in the mission and success of the Robert H. Jackson Center.
“As an accomplished attorney and prosecutor in her own right it is especially
fitting that Melissa Jackson be a part of our program on May 16,” Peterson
said.
Ms. Jackson joined the Kings County District Attorney’s Office after
graduating from Fordham Law School in 1981. She graduated cum laude from the
University of Pennsylvania in 1974. Ms. Jackson is an alumnae of the Chapin
School.
Ms. Jackson is the daughter of Nancy Roosevelt Jackson and the late William
(Bill) E. Jackson who was chief litigation partner at Milbank Tweed and assisted
his father in the prosecution at Nuremberg.
“My father would have believed in and welcomed the establishment of
the Jackson Center,” Ms. Jackson said.
She lives in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, with her husband and three children.