Friday, July 18, 2014
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Rothschild Confirmed as Presiding Justice of C.A. Div. One
Collins, Two San Franciscans Also Gain Commission’s Approval
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Court of Appeal Justice Frances Rothschild was confirmed yesterday as presiding justice of this district’s Div. One, while U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins was confirmed as associate justice in Div. Four.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who chairs the Commission on Judicial Appointments, said in a release that Rothschild and Collins had been confirmed unanimously, as had two First District nominees.
Rothschild, 73, was named to the Court of Appeal by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005. She was named to the Superior Court by Gov. Jerry Brown in 1978, while he was in his first term.
She was a Los Angeles Municipal Court judge at the time of her appointment to the Superior Court, having been named to the lower court by Brown in 1975.
She came to the bench from a private law practice specializing in labor law and other civil litigation. In a 1983 interview, she attributed her appointment to the bench to being in the right place at the right time, having represented Brown in a lawsuit when he was secretary of state.
She also served as senior counsel for the California State University and Colleges and clerked for Shirley Hufstedler when the future U.S. secretary of education was a justice of this district’s Court of Appeal.
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AUDREY B. COLLINS U.S. District Judge |
FRANCES ROTHSCHILD Court of Appeal Presiding Justice |
Rothschild earned her law and undergraduate degrees at UCLA. She was born in Poland and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 8 years old.
The family initially settled in Brooklyn, and she attended Rutgers University before transferring to UCLA.
She fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Presiding Justice Robert M. Mallano.
Collins, 69, has served on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California since 1994, and was chief judge from 2009 to 2012.
She was appointed to the federal bench by then-President Bill Clinton following service as assistant district attorney for Los Angeles County, the No. 3 position in the office.
Collins graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Howard University in 1967, and earned her master’s degree in government and public administration from American University in 1969. She graduated Order of the Coif from UCLA’s law school in 1977, and joined the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles as an assistant staff attorney.
One year later, Collins became a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County. She served as the head deputy in the Torrance branch office from 1987-1988, assistant director of the Bureau of Central and Special Operations from 1988-1992, and assistant district attorney from 1992-1994.
She also served as deputy general counsel to William H. Webster, in his capacity as special advisor to the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners following the civil unrest of 1992.
She fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Steven Suzukawa.
The two Northern California nominees approved yesterday were Justice James Humes, who moves from Div. Four to succeed the now-retired James Marchiano as presiding justice of Div. One, and Therese M. Stewart, chief assistant city attorney of San Francisco since 2002, who fills the Div. Two slot left open when Justice James Lambden retired.
The commission, when considering First District nominees, consists of Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Kamala Harris, and senior Presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline. When considering Second District nominees, it consists of Cantil-Sakauye, Harris, and senior Presiding Justice Joan Dempsey Klein.
All four of those confirmed yesterday are Democrats.
Copyright 2014, Metropolitan News Company