Friday, December 21, 2012
Page 1
Commission Confirms Three to Appellate Courts
By a MetNews Staff Writer
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ADRIENNE M. GROVER Court of Appeal Justice |
JAMES M. HUMES Court of Appeal Justice |
ROSENDO PEÑA Court of Appeal Justice |
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The Commission on Judicial Appointments yesterday confirmed three of Gov. Jerry Brown’s nominees to the state Court of Appeal.
The commission, which met in San Francisco, unanimously confirmed Adrienne M. Grover, named justice for the Sixth District; James M. Humes, who will sit in the First District’s Div. Four, and Rosendo Peña Jr., who will fill a Fifth District vacancy, the Administrative Office of the Courts said in a release.
Grover was elevated from the Monterey Superior Court, where the 50-year-old Carmel resident has served since 2002. She served as county counsel for Monterey County from 1999 to 2002 and as deputy county counsel from 1995 to 1999.
She worked for Calaveras County from 1992 to 1995, serving first as assistant county counsel and then deputy county counsel. Grover was an associate attorney at Long and Levit LLP from 1990 to 1992. She is a graduate of Santa Clara University School of Law and UC Berkeley.
She fills the vacancy created by the retirement last year of Justice Wendy Clark Duffy.
Humes, who becomes the first openly gay appellate justice in California, according to the Governor’s Office, has served as Brown’s executive secretary for legal affairs, administration and policy since last year.
While chief deputy attorney general under Brown, Humes supervised a staff of 5,300, including 1,100 lawyers. He played a key role in then-Attorney General Brown’s unsuccessful challenge of Proposition 8 before the California Supreme Court.
In the past Humes has served in multiple positions at the California Department of Justice, including chief assistant of the civil division and senior assistant attorney general of the health, education and welfare section.
Humes earned his law degree from the University of Denver, a master of social science degree from the University of Colorado and an undergraduate degree from Illinois State University.
Peña moves up from the Fresno Superior Court—where he has served since 2002—to become the first Latino justice in the history of the Fifth District.
Before becoming a judge, he served as a senior research attorney for the court to which he has now been elevated. His law degree is from UCLA and his undergraduate degree from California State University, Fresno.
The confirmations leave vacancies in this district’s Div. Six, from which Justice Paul Coffee retired on Jan. 31, and in the Third District, which has had an opening since Tani Cantil-Sakauye became chief justice of California in January of last year.
Copyright 2012, Metropolitan News Company