Wednesday, August 7, 2002
Page 3
Davis Names Two Lockyer Deputies to Sacramento Superior Court
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Gov. Gray Davis yesterday named two officials from the state Department of Justice, including the chief of the civil division, to the Sacramento Superior Court.
Appointed were Chief Assistant Attorney General Pamela Smith-Steward, 40, of Gold Hill, and Deputy Attorney General Troy L. Nunley, 38, of West Sacramento.
Smith-Steward has headed the civil division since 1999, heading a 500-employee staff that acts as chief counsel for the governor and other state elected officials, appointees and agencies.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer issued a statement lamenting his loss of Smith-Steward but praising Davis’ choice.
“For the past three years Ms. Smith-Steward has been an indispensable source of wisdom, sound advice and competence for me and other state government leaders, including the Governor,” Lockyer said. “She not only possesses an acute legal intellect, but is also committed to public service and fair treatment.”
Smith-Steward has served most of her legal career working for the state of California, first for the Department of Corrections, then for the Department of Justice.
A graduate of USC, she earned her law degree from Harvard Law School and became a member of the State Bar of California in 1986. She began working at the Sacramento office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, a San Francisco-based firm, but soon became a staff attorney at the corrections department.
Smith-Steward was chief counsel and deputy director at corrections when she left to join Lockyer’s department.
Nunley leaves Lockyer’s Criminal Division, where he has defended the state in criminal appeals and habeas corpus proceeding.
He attended St. Mary’s College in the Bay Area community of Moraga, then graduated from Hastings College of Law. He became a State Bar member in 1991.
He was an Alameda deputy district attorney until 1994, when he opened his own law practice in San Leandro. After two years he returned to the ranks of criminal prosecutors, this time in Sacramento County.
Davis’ office reported that Nunley tried 50 felony jury trials in his prosecutorial career.
In 1999, Nunley joined Lockyer’s office.
“Troy is one of our most dedicated and skilled prosecutors,” Lockyer said yesterday. “His tireless devotion to the law and for even-handed justice make him very well-suited for the bench. Troy is an extraordinary choice for the Sacramento Superior Court.”
Superior court judges in California receive annual salaries of $136,224.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company