Susan Jung Townsend

Friday, April 29, 2016

Page 8

EDITORIAL

Susan Jung Townsend

Los Angeles Superior Court, Office No. 84

There are four candidates for Los Angeles Superior Court Office No. 84, and all of them are worthy.

We would, at the outset, eliminate from consideration Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Hubert Yun, not based on lack of capacity—that, he has—but a lack of commitment.

A devoted family man, wanting to spend time playing with his children, he doesn’t believe in bringing work home with him. That’s something conscientious judges find they sometimes need to do.

Too, Yun was admitted to the State Bar on Nov. 26, 2003, and his attainment is less than that of the other three candidates.

So, we are left with Aaron J. Weissman, admitted in April 1981, and Deputy District Attorneys Javier Perez, an attorney since December of 1990, and Susan Jung Townsend, a member of the State Bar since December 1996.

There is much to be said for each of them. Unlike the other contests, there is no clearly superior candidate.

For eight years, starting in the early 1990s, Weissman served as an as-needed, volunteer Superior Court judge pro tem—handling not merely the minor matters handed to pro tems these days, but any civil or probate matter other than a trial. Filling in for absent jurists, he was a “substitute judge.” By the accounts of several jurists, who urged his appointment to the bench, he did an exemplary job.

Perez was imbued by his parents with a deep-seated work ethic. Highly industrious and able, he is entrusted with heading operations of his office in Covina, the busiest court in the county.

Notwithstanding that she is less experienced than Weissman or Perez, our choice is Townsend.

Poised, intelligent, skilled in communicating her thoughts with precision, we believe she would excel as a judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court. We discern definite potential on her part for higher judicial office.

While we endorse Susan Jung Townsend for election to the Los Angeles Superior Court, we endorse Weissman and Perez for appointment by the governor. And, once his kids grow up and move out of the house, Yun, too, might well merit consideration.