Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

 

Page 3

 

LACBA Selects McCoy as Outstanding Jurist of 2011

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

The Los Angeles County Bar Association yesterday announced its selection of former Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Charles W. McCoy Jr. as the 32nd recipient of its Outstanding Jurist Award.

Established in 1979, the Outstanding Jurist Award, is one of LACBA’s highest awards and is presented annually to a current or past member of the federal or state judiciary in Los Angeles County who has made significant contributions from the bench through judicial ability and experience, temperament and demeanor, knowledge of the law, improvement or education of the legal community and the practice of law and the community at large, according to a LACBA spokesperson.

LACBA President Alan K. Steinbrecher said the organization selected McCoy “in recognition of his long standing commitment to the public and Los Angeles legal community” as well as his accomplishments leading the court through “an incredibly challenging year” during the second half of his tenure as presiding judge.

Steinbrecher credited McCoy’s “leadership and tireless efforts in trying to find solutions to narrow the funding gap” with having “helped save hundreds of courthouse jobs and helped ensure continued fair and equal access to the judicial system by people throughout Los Angeles.”

McCoy said that he was “tremendously honored and humbled” by the honor, and insisted that “it is I who should be giving an award to the Los Angeles County Bar Association for the vitally important and tremendously effective support the organization gave our local court system during my tenure as Presiding Judge.”

This year’s award is slated to be presented at a ceremony May 24 at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel.

McCoy was appointed to the court in 1992 by then-Gov. Pete Wilson and has served as supervising judge of the complex courts, supervising judge of the civil division, assistant presiding judge and presiding judge. He is currently assigned to a juvenile delinquency court in Pomona.

Before coming to the bench, he served as chief of staff to Matthew Fong when Fong was a member of the State Board of Equalization, and was a partner in Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton’s Los Angeles office, where he practiced for 17 years.

McCoy graduated from Purdue University in 1968 and from University of Texas School of Law in 1975. He spent four years prior to law school serving as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, and received a Navy Commendation Medal for his service in Vietnam.

 

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