Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a five-part series exploring Judge Sonia Sotomayor's background and life with those who know her, revealing the experiences that might shape her views as a Supreme Court justice. Sonia Sotomayor is flanked by her supervisor, Warren Murray, and D.A. Robert Morgenthau, right, in 1983. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor graduated with honors from Ivy League schools. But she may have learned some of her most memorable lessons as a young prosecutor, following police into abandoned tenements and tracking down witnesses on the grimy streets of New York. Sotomayor joined the Manhattan District Attorney's office in 1979 during an epic crime wave. Muggings, burglaries and assaults were rampant; homicides topped 1,800 a year. She was recruited from Yale Law School by Robert M. Morgenthau, Manhattan's district attorney. She was 25, and her starting salary was $17,000.
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Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor began her legal career as a prosecutor
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She worked in the Manhattan DA's office from 1979 to 1984
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Her former colleagues remember Sotomayor as driven and focused
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Manhattan DA Robert M. Morgenthau on Thursday's Senate witness schedule
Like most rookies, Sotomayor started with misdemeanors, juggling 60 to 80 cases at a time, working 12-hour days in the 1930s-era building on the tip of @placeholder, and pulling an occasional shift in night court.