Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Page 3
Governor Selects Suzanne Murphy as General Counsel for PERB
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Gov. Jerry Brown yesterday announced his selection of Pasadena attorney M. Suzanne Murphy to be general counsel of the Public Employment Relations Board.
This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $126,864.
Murphy, 58, served as law clerk to Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Senior Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall from 2009 until Hall’s death in March.
Prior to that, Murphy spent a year as the executive director of Worksafe, a California-based employee health and safety advocacy group, and a year as legal counsel for the California Nurses Association.
She also worked for the Administrative Office of the Courts for three years, as managing attorney at the Center for Families, Children & the Courts and as supervising attorney for the rules and projects unit in the Office of the General Counsel before entering private practice with the Alameda labor and employment law firm of Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld from 2003-06.
After graduating from Stanford University, earning her law degree from UC Berkeley and joining the State Bar in 1990, she joined Cooley, Godward, Castro, Huddleston &Tatum. She moved to Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe in 1992.
Murphy became the senior research attorney for First District Court of Appeal Justice Michael Phelan in 1993. In 1999, she became senior research attorney for Justice Patricia Sepulveda, also of the First District.
Her position does not require Senate confirmation. The salary is $128,864 annually.
In other news, Brown tapped Elk Grove attorney A. Eugene Huguenin for a position on the Public Employment Relations Board and UC Hastings law professor Ashutosh Bhagwat for a post on the governing board of the California Independent System Operator.
Senate confirmation is required for those appointments.
Huguenin, 68, has operated his own law practice since 2001. He served as staff counsel for the California Teachers Association from 1979 to 2000, and as a consultant from 1973 to 1979.
He also served as a commissioner on the Fair Political Practices Commission from 2005 to 2009.
The attorney completed both his undergraduate and legal education at the University of Washington before admission to the State Bar in 1976.
Bhagwat, 46, joined the Hasting faculty in 1994 after working two years as an associate with Sidley & Austin.
He previously clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy from 1991 to 1992 and Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Richard Posner from 1990 to 1991.
Murphy is registered decline-to-state. Huguenin and Bhagwat are Democrats. Compensation for Huguenin’s post is $128,109, and for Bhagwat’s is $5,000 quarterly in addition to per diem meeting preparation and attendance costs.
Copyright 2011, Metropolitan News Company