Tuesday, September 6, 2005
Page 3
Judicial Council Names Bamattre-Manoukian, Horn Jurists of Year
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Sixth District Court of Appeal Justice Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian and Orange Superior Court Presiding Judge Frederick P. Horn were named Jurists of the Year Friday by the state’s Judicial Council.
In a press release, the council said Bamattre-Manoukian had “contributed significantly to statewide judicial leadership through a wide range of activities in judicial education, community outreach, and other professional projects that have served the courts and public.”
A former member of the Judicial Council, Bamattre-Manoukian currently chairs the Appellate Justices Education Committee of the Center for Judicial Education and Research Governing Committee, as well the Appellate Court Security Committee. She is a past chair of the Judicial Council’s Probation Services Task Force and the CJER Governing Committee.
The council’s press release noted that Bamattre-Manoukian has taught and lectured at high schools, colleges, and bar association seminars in the Sixth District, which includes Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. From 1985 to 1988, she taught trial techniques at Santa Clara University School of Law and has taught at Stanford Law School’s Advocacy Skills Workshop.
She was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 1989, and served as acting administrative presiding justice of the court from 2001 to 2003.
The council said Horn “has demonstrated leadership and advocacy of access and fairness in the California courts and dedication to excellence in court administration.”
He is a longtime member and past chair of the Judicial Council’s Access and Fairness Advisory Committee. Earlier this year, he won the Recognition of National Service Award from the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness.
Horn developed a training video that focuses on court access for persons with disabilities, and a gender fairness training video produced in 2003. He also was instrumental in drafting the rule of court for requesting accommodations by persons with disabilities, which took effect in 1996.
Horn serves on the faculty of the B.E. Witkin Judicial College of California, the California Continuing Judicial Studies Program, and the New Judges Orientation Program. In March he was elected vice-chair of the Commission on Judicial Performance.
The Judicial Council also honored Jody Patel, court executive officer of the Sacramento Superior Court, and Karen Thorson, director of the Education Division/Center for Judicial Education and Research of the Administrative Office of the Courts, as the state’s top judicial administrators for 2004-2005, and announced that Alba Witkin, the widow of legal scholar Bernard E. Witkin, will receive the council’s Bernard E. Witkin Award, which annually honors individuals other than members of the judiciary for outstanding contributions to the courts of California.
The council’s press release credited Patel with creating “a re-engineering and innovation unit within the court to improve all court operations practices and procedures, as well as the establishment of a countywide charter for all criminal justice agencies within the county to improve the delivery of services to the community and the local bar, saving time and resources for both the court and local criminal justices agencies.”
Thorson, the council said, spearheaded a “curriculum initiative” which will “revolutionize how educational needs are identified, how education is developed and delivered, and how that education is evaluated and enhanced” within the court system.
The council noted that since Bernard Witkin’s death in 1995, Alba Witkin has continued the work of a charitable fund they established in 1982 called the Foundation for Judicial Education.
The awards, in their 12th year, are collectively denominated the Distinguished Service Awards by the council. They will be presented to the recipients this week during the 2005 Statewide Judicial Branch Conference, which will be held in conjunction with the State Bar of California convention and the gathering of the California Judges Association in San Diego.
Copyright 2005, Metropolitan News Company