Syracuse, NY -- Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick has hired a familiar face to join the DA’s office: his own daughter, Sara Fitzpatrick.

Sara Fitzpatrick, 28, will join the ranks of assistant district attorneys after being sworn in as a new lawyer on Jan. 8, the DA confirmed to Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard on Thursday. Her job will likely start about a week later.

Sara Fitzpatrick will begin handling mainly misdemeanors and non-criminal offenses in Syracuse City Court, her father said. She will be paid a starting prosecutor salary of $56,000 a year.

Sara Fitzpatrick graduated Syracuse University in 2019 with dual degrees: a master’s in forensics from the College of Arts and Sciences and a law degree from the School of Law. Her father said that she earned a 4.0 GPA in her forensics diploma.

Since graduating, Sara Fitzpatrick has worked as a criminal law associate in the Oneida County District Attorney’s Office under Scott McNamara. That’s typically a job for an aspiring lawyer who hasn’t yet passed the bar exam. Bar exam results came back in the fall, allowing Sara Fitzpatrick to become a full-fledged attorney.

Sara Fitzpatrick left her post in Oneida County around the holiday court recess. At the same time, McNamara’s son, Jordan McNamara, who is an assistant prosecutor in Fitzpatrick’s office, decided he will leave by the end of January to become a civil lawyer.

The elder Fitzpatrick, who took office in 1992 -- months after Sara was born -- acknowledged that his daughter had an inside track when it came to getting hired.

“She’s obviously had a bit of an advantage as my daughter, and most of the older folks in the office have known her since she was a baby,” Fitzpatrick said, later adding: “To those...who question the hiring and say she has an advantage because she’s my daughter, you’re right."

That said, Fitzpatrick said it’s now up to his daughter to prove herself in the courtroom.

“Ultimately, Sara will rise or fall on her own abilities,” the DA said.

Some of her special experience as the DA’s daughter has come in helping her dad on big cases. In one, the 2015 Robert Neulander trial, the DA publicly credited Sara -- an intern in the office at the time -- for noticing a minute detail that her dad used in closing arguments.

“She has helped me on four murder trials, so I think she can handle the rigors of City Court,” Fitzpatrick said Thursday, adding that his daughter had turned down out-of-state job offers to work for her dad.

“I’m glad she’s staying here,” Fitzpatrick said.

The DA also revealed that his daughter had survived a brain tumor as a young woman.

Sara “successfully battled a brain tumor with the help of the wonderful doctors at Sloan Kettering, so her mother and I are very proud of her,” the DA said. “And she’s also a black belt in karate, so defendants should not mess with her."

Sara Fitzpatrick’s mother, and the DA’s wife, is state Court of Claims Judge Diane Fitzpatrick.

The DA himself was sworn in in recent days for his eighth four-year term after defeating challengers Chuck Keller and Gary Lavine in November’s election.

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