Thursday, January 25, 2007
Page 3
S.C. Names Judge Katherine Feinstein to Commission on Judicial Performance
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The California Supreme Court yesterday appointed San Francisco Superior Court Judge Katherine Feinstein to the Commission on Judicial Performance for a four-year term beginning March 1.
Feinstein, 49, will succeed Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Rise Jones Pichon, who must leave the commission due to term limits.
Feinstein was appointed to the bench in June 2000 by then-Gov. Gray Davis. She has served primarily in the family and juvenile courts and is chair of the court’s Personnel Committee.
The jurist is the daughter of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a graduate of Hastings College of the Law. She is a former San Francisco police commissioner and served on the San Francisco Mayor’s Criminal Justice Council from 1994 to 1996.
She was a deputy city attorney from 1998 until she became a judge. At the time of her appointment, she was supervising a 10-lawyer unit representing the Department of Human Services in dependency cases.
The 11-member CJP includes three judicial members—one from the Court of Appeal and two from the superior courts—along with two lawyers and six public members. All of the judicial members are appointed by the Supreme Court, while the governor appoints the attorney members and the governor, Senate Rules Committee and Assembly speaker each appoint two of the public members.
Pichon is one of five members whose terms expire at the end of next month. The others are attorney member Michael Kahn; public member Crystal Lui, an appointee of the Assembly speaker; Jose C. Miramontes, a public member appointed by the governor; and Penny Perez, a public member appointed by the Rules Committee.
Kahn and Lui are term-limited, while Miramontes and Perez are eligible for reappointment.
Copyright 2007, Metropolitan News Company