Chief Justice Names Candace Cooper to Serve on Judicial Council

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

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Chief Justice Names Candace Cooper to Serve on Judicial Council

By a MetNews Staff Writer

Presiding Justice Candace D. Cooper of Div. Eight of this district’s Court of Appeal was named yesterday by Chief Justice Ronald M. George to a three-year term on the Judicial Council of California.

Cooper replaces Justice Norman L. Epstein of Div. Four. The council is the policymaking body for the state court system.

Also named to the council were El Dorado Superior Court Presiding Judge Suzanne N. Kingsbury, Riverside Superior Court Presiding Judge Douglas P. Miller, and Fresno Superior Court Executive Officer Tamara L. Beard.

The Judicial Council, which George chairs, consists of 14 judicial members appointed by him, four attorney members appointed by the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California, one member from each house of the Legislature, six advisory members, and the administrative director of the courts, who serves as secretary to the council.

Terms on the council are staggered, with one-third of the council’s membership changing each year. The terms of the new members will begin on Sept. 15, 2004.

Also beginning a new term Sept. 15 will be former State Bar President James Herman, who was previously named to the council by the Board of Governors.

Cooper was appointed in October of 2001 to head the newly created Div. Eight by then-Gov. Gray Davis. Davis had appointed her to Div. Two in 1999.

She was named to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1980 and to the Superior Court in 1987. She served a previous term on the council as an advisory member from 1988 to 1989, when she was president of the California Judges Association.

Cooper is currently chairperson of the council’s Judicial Service Advisory Committee and served as chair of the council’s Brown v. Board of Education Planning Committee.

Kingsbury was elected to the Superior Court in 1996, becoming the first female judge in the El Dorado court’s history. She has served as presiding judge of the court for the last five years.

Prior to joining the bench, Kingsbury was a first a deputy district attorney and then a deputy public defender, both in El Dorado County. She will replace Solano Superior Court Judge William C. Harrison.

Miller was a civil trial attorney before his appointment to the bench in 1995. He serves on several Judicial Council committees, including the Trial Court Presiding Judges Advisory Committee, the Trial Court Executive Management Budget Working Group, the Presiding Judges and Court Executives Legislation Subcommittee, and the Civil Law Education Planning Committee.

From 1999-2002, he served on the Board of Directors of the California Judges Association. He will replace Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Barbara A. Zúñiga.

Beard has two decades of court administration experience and has served the council’s Court Executives Advisory Committee, Administrative Working Group for Senate Bill 371 Interpreter Employment Implementation, and Presiding Judges and Court Executives Education Committee. She will be an advisory member of the council and will replace Shasta Superior Court Executive Officer Susan Null.