Friday, May 8, 2009
Page 1
Commissioner Jack Gold Sets June 26 Retirement Date
By SHERRI M. OKAMOTO, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Jack J. Gold yesterday confirmed that he will be retiring from the bench on June 26.
“I like it here, and I love my staff…I just have been here 26 years, that’s a lot of time,” he told the MetNews.
Gold said his time on the bench had been “a great experience,” but disclosed that “there’s some other stuff I want to do.”
The commissioner quipped that he had been hoping to get a call to play Batman in the next movie, but since that did not happen, he was probably going to return to his native Canada in order to obtain a passport and travel.
Gold, a longtime conga player, said he was also “going to be doing some work with musician friends when I’m done here.”
Admitted to the State Bar in 1971, Gold took a brief hiatus from law in the late 1970s to work as a record promoter, and has produced several salsa music CDs over the years. The albums—”Salsa Pop,” “La Loco,” “When Worlds Collide” and “Havanna Taxi”—“are available for sale on iTunes,” he said.
“And just maybe,” Gold added, he may “handle a few cases here and there, if somebody wants to hire me.”
But, he said, of course taking the role of Batman “will take precedence over anything.”
A native of Montreal, Gold moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was 6-years old. He attended Hollywood High School and then Los Angeles City College.
He earned his law degree from what is now Whittier Law School in 1970, and entered private practice in West Hollywood, working in juvenile and criminal defense, as well as entertainment law.
In 1983, he became a juvenile court referee, and one year later was elected a commissioner by judges of the Superior Court.
He sought election to a vacant seat on the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1988 but was unsuccessful, losing to then-Municipal Court Commissioner Juelann Cathey.
Copyright 2009, Metropolitan News Company