Monday, January 13, 2003
Page 4
Dennis Perluss Confirmed, Sworn In as Presiding Justice in Div. Seven
By a MetNews Staff Writer
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Court of Appeal Justice Dennis Perluss was confirmed and sworn in Friday as presiding justice of this district’s Div. Seven.
Perluss, who had been an associate justice in that division, succeeds the late Mildred Lillie, California’s longest-serving judge. Lillie was a member of the Court of Appeal for more than 44 years, the last 18 as presiding justice in Div. Seven.
The confirmation of Perluss, a former Morrison & Foerster partner, topped off a day of hearings in San Diego. Earlier Friday, the commission unanimously confirmed Gov. Gray Davis’ nominees for three seats on the Fourth District Court of Appeal.
The 54-year-old Perluss received a unanimous vote of approval from the Commission on Judicial Appointments, which, when considering nominees from this district, consists of Chief Justice Ronald M. George, Attorney General Bill Lockyer, and the senior presiding justice, Joan Dempsey Klein of Div. Three.
Lockyer was not present at the hearings, but authorized the chief justice, who chairs the commission, to announce affirmative votes on all of the nominees. Perluss has been a Court of Appeal justice since September 2001. Before that, he was named to the Superior Court as part of Davis’ first group of trial court appointees, in October 1999.
He was also one of four jurists whose names were sent to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as possible appointees to the state Supreme Court following the death of Justice Stanley Mosk in 2001. The appointment ultimately went to Carlos Moreno.
Perluss is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School. After clerking for then-Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Shirley Hufstedler and the late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, he began his practicing career in 1975 in Los Angeles with Hufstedler and Kaus. He also served as deputy general counsel to the Christopher Commission.
The new Fourth District justices are Cynthia Aaron, formerly a U.S. magistrate judge, in Div. One; Jeffrey King, formerly a San Bernardino Superior Court judge, in Div. Two; and Raymond Ikola, formerly an Orange Superior Court judge, in Div. Three. They were approved by George, Lockyer, and the district’s senior presiding justice, Daniel Kremer of Div. One.
Copyright 2003, Metropolitan News Company