Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

 

Page 3

 

Judge Terry Friedman to Become CJA Vice President

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Terry Friedman has been named a vice president of the California Judges Association for 2004-2005, the organization said yesterday in a press release.

The selection was made Friday by the CJA Executive Board at its regular meeting. Friedman will be sworn in Oct. 10 at the association’s annual meeting, which will be held in Monterey at the same time the State Bar is convening in that city.

 Also sworn in that time will be Sacramento Superior Court Judge James Mize as president, San Diego Superior Court Judge Joan Lewis as Friedman’s fellow vice president, and San Mateo Superior Court Judge Stephen Hall as secretary-treasurer.

Friedman told the MetNews that the board will be setting out its priorities during the annual meeting and at a subsequent retreat, usually held in November. Among the issues he expects to be at the top of the agenda are protecting judicial independence and achieving parity for newer judges, who are in the second-tier retirement plan known as JRS II.

Friedman, 54, was elected to the Superior Court in 1994, after eight years in the state Assembly. He said he hopes to put his Sacramento experience to work for CJA.

He added that he is looking forward to working with Mize, who currently serves as secretary-treasurer. He described the president-elect as “a terrific guy who knows how to build consensus.”

Having a Sacramento jurist as president, Friedman added, “is a real advantage” for CJA because much of the organization’s work involves interaction with state officials. 

Friedman spent his first seven years on the bench in juvenile court, serving as supervising judge of the dependency courts and later as presiding juvenile court judge. He currently hears a civil calendar in Santa Monica.

He also chaired the Juvenile Court Judges of California, and is in his first year on the CJA board. As a lawyer, he worked as a staff attorney for the Western Center on Law & Poverty from 1976 to 1978, then as executive director of Bet Tzedek Legal Services until his election to the Legislature.

He is a graduate of UCLA and Boalt Hall and has been an adjunct professor at Loyola, UCLA and USC law schools.

Mize, 57, has been a CJA board member since 2002 after serving as chair of the group’s Family Law Committee. He was appointed to the bench in 2000 after 26 years as an attorney in private practice in Sacramento

He holds a bachelor’s degree, as well as a master’s in social work, from UC Berkeley and a law degree from the University of San Francisco.

Lewis has served on the San Diego Superior Court since 1998 and was a civil litigator before joining the bench.

Hall was appointed in 1997 to the San Mateo Municipal Court and elevated to the Superior Court in 1998 upon unification. Prior to taking the bench he served as deputy district attorney in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, and he is a former police officer.

 

Copyright 2004, Metropolitan News Company