Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Page 1
Court of Appeal Appointments
Governor Elevates Rubin to Presiding Justice, Names Currey, Wiley to Vacancies
With Confirmation, All Seats in State Will Be Filled
By a MetNews Staff Writer
|
|
|
|
|
LAURENCE D. RUBIN Presiding Justice-Designate |
BRIAN S. CURREY Associate Justice-Designate |
JOHN S. WILEY JR. Associate Justice-Designate |
All vacancies on the Court of Appeal for this district have been filled, with Justice Laurence D. Rubin being elevated yesterday to the post of presiding justice of Div. Five and Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Brian S. Currey and John S. Wiley Jr. being chosen for seat as associate justices.
Gov. Jerry Brown yesterday also made an appointment to the First District Court of Appeal, leaving no vacancies in any of the six appellate districts in the state, assuming confirmation of the latest four persons just picked.
Rubin, 72, has been a Court of Appeal justice since 2001. He was among the first three members of the newly created Div. Eight, and came under consideration in 2009 for appointment of that panel’s presiding justice.
In 1982, Brown appointed him as a judge of the Santa Monica Municipal Court. He became a Los Angeles Superior Court judge upon trial court unification in 2000.
Before taking the bench, Rubin worked in private practice. His law degree is from UCLA.
Replacement for Rubin
Wiley, 65, will be taking Rubin’s former spot in Div. Eight upon the latter’s elevation to presiding justice. The Superior Court judge has held his current position since 2002.
The jurist was a UCLA Law School professor from 1983 to 2005 and was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in 1998. His J.D. is from Berkeley.
Currey, 62, has been on the bench since 2014, and will take a spot in Div. Four. He worked for former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa from 2010 to 2013, first as counsel and later as deputy mayor.
He spent much of his career at O’Melveny and Myers, where he worked from 1981 to 2010, then again in 2013-14. His law degree is from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Wiley and Currey have been serving as Court of Appeal pro tems.
First District Appointment
In addition to the appointments in this district, Brown named Gordon D. Burns, 52, to Div. Five of the First District Court of Appeal. Burns is currently undersecretary for the California Environmental Protection Agency.
His law degree is from UC Hastings College of the Law.
The appointments require confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, consisting of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Xavier Becerra, and the senior presiding justice of the district to which the appointee has been named—Arthur Gilbert, in this district, and J. Anthony Kline in the First District.
The commission will meet in San Francisco on Dec. 21 and will consider the four appointments made yesterday as well as the selection of gubernatorial legal advisor Joshua Groban for the state’s high court and the elevations of San Francisco Superior Court Judge Tracie L. Brown and Alameda Superior Court Judge Ioana Petrou to the First District Court of Appeal.
If the governor follows his tradition, he will make a spate of Christmastime appointment to superior courts, and it is generally assumed he will fill all vacancies.
Copyright 2018, Metropolitan News Company