The signs of a future lawyer and judge were present early in Arlene M. Asencio Perkkio’s childhood. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Perkkio and a cousin would get into mischief. She then would argue why they should not be in trouble. People started telling her she should be a lawyer.
Perkkio’s parents owned a small business in Brooklyn; A travel agency where they sold insurance, translated documents, helped people file their tax forms, provided notary services and more. During tax season, the Asencio children would spend lots of time with their grandparents while Perkkio’s parents worked seven days a week.
Her parents emphasized education, believing education to be the great equalizer: “An education cannot be taken away from you.” While not many in her family had attended college, her parents gave Perkkio and her siblings no choice. They would all go to college and get degrees. Towards that end, Perkkio’s parents invested in a private prep school education for their children. Perkkio attended the Packer Collegiate Institute, and was guided through the college admissions process.
A New Yorker becomes a Minnesotan
Perkkio’s path to Minnesota was a surprise. Macalester College was heavily recruiting on the East Coast. Perkkio never thought she would go to college in Minnesota but agreed to visit and then decided to attend. A good financial-aid package helped too. Members of Perkkio’s extended family were concerned about Perkkio traveling so far away. Some in the family thought she was being sent away to hide a pregnancy; Perkkio laughed at the idea.
Minnesota was different culturally and culinarily. Perkkio also missed the support of a large extended family. People assumed she was Mexican and did not know about Puerto Ricans. Food was different too. She had no idea about macaroni and cheese or peanut butter and jelly. This helped Perkkio understand that people act from their point of reference. Studying at Macalester and spending her junior year studying at Cambridge in England also gave her a more global experience. Perkkio met her now husband at Macalester too.
From private practice to the bench
Perkkio knew from a young age that she wanted to be a criminal defense attorney, thanks in part to her arguing skills since childhood and in part because of a lawyer who rented a back office in her parents’ Brooklyn small business. She worked for a year before heading to William Mitchell College of Law (now Mitchell Hamline School of Law). While attending law school, Perkkio clerked for Ramsey County District Judge Donald E. Gross.
Thereafter she worked as a criminal-training specialist in the court system before opening her own practice in October of 1995. Her practice concentrated on criminal defense. She has been a contract public defender, representing indigent defendants in Wright County and Dakota County. She served as a panel attorney for the Minnesota Federal Defenders. Much of her practice focused on immigration consequences for noncitizen clients. Her expertise in that area of law has resulted in her making court appearances in 31 different counties in Minnesota. She has also taught classes on that subject matter at her alma mater. Perkkio has tried over 30 cases to a jury.
A colleague told Perkkio that trial work was a “young person's game.” She thought, though, that she wanted to do trial work for the rest of her life until she was in a trial in 2009 that went for weeks. She was exhausted afterwards, and it was hard for her to bounce back. She kept thinking that maybe her colleague was right and maybe it was time for something else. She took a year off from working for the counties and focused her energy on her private practice.
Then an opening arose for a Dakota County judgeship. She thought about it, talked to colleagues and judges she knew, and was encouraged to apply. Governor Dayton appointed her in 2011, and she won reelection in 2012. She is the first Latina to serve as a judge in Minnesota’s First Judicial District. Perkkio says she is doing something she loves, spending most days in court and getting to explore areas of the law she did not get to learn about during her private-practice years. Perkkio is driven by twelve core values she adopted from the UNC women’s soccer team that include no whining, no complaining, and no excuses, among others. She says her life mission statement is a living, breathing document that will change over time.
Judge Perkkio and her husband Dave live in Mendota Heights. They recently became empty nesters and are available anytime over the phone to their children, all in college now. The empty nesters are enjoying the freedom to come and go as they please.