Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Page 3
Judges Burke, Gardner Granted Disability Retirement
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Barbara Lee Burke and Hugh C. Gardner III have been granted disability retirement, the MetNews learned yesterday.
Burke, 64, presided in Pasadena and has been on sick leave for about two years.
She was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 1981 after serving as a commissioner in the same court from 1978 to 1981. She served as presiding judge in the Glendale Judicial District in 1989 and 1991.
She was born in the East Bay city of Richmond but grew up in Burbank, where she graduated from John Burroughs High School. She received both her bachelor’s and law degrees from UCLA, the former in 1963 and the latter in 1966.
Burke served as senior trial attorney in the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office in from 1968 to 1978
Gardner, who sat at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, was appointed to the Superior Court by then-Gov. Pete Wilson in 1992.
Born in Long Beach, Gardner, 63, graduated from San Jose State College—now part of the California State University—in 1968, and Stanford University Law School in 1971. He worked from 1972 to 1988 at McCutchen, Black, Verleger & Shea in Los Angeles, first as an associate and then as partner, and as a partner in the Los Angeles office of Sidley & Austin from 1988 to 1992. He specialized in pharmaceutical litigation at both firms.
Burke did not run for re-election, and her successor, Daniel Lowenthal, is due to take office Jan. 8. Gardner’s successor will be appointed by the governor.
Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company