Wednesday, January 22, 2003
Page 3
Commission Confirms Conrad L. Rushing as Sixth District Presiding Justice
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Conrad L. Rushing was confirmed yesterday as presiding justice of the Sixth District Court of Appeal.
Meeting in San Francisco, the Commission on Judicial Appointments voted unanimously to elevate Rushing from his associate justice post, where he has served for just short of a year. He succeeds Christopher Cottle, who retired in 2001.
The Sixth District is based in San Jose and covers Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.
Gov. Gray Davis appointed Rushing to the Court of Appeal in late 2001 after a 23-year career on the Santa Clara Superior Court.
In the trial court, he served as presiding judge and as supervising judge of the criminal departments. He also sat in the civil and appellate divisions of the court.
Rushing oversaw the case of Avant! Corporation and a number of its executives for conspiracy to steal trade secrets, securities fraud and related crimes. Rushing ordered Avant! to pay $195 million in restitution and $38 million in fines after the Santa Clara district attorney entered into a plea agreement with the defendants.
He also presided over People v. Hwang and Chan, in which two workers were accused of stealing secrets for the Intel 386 processor chip.
Before Gov. Jerry Brown appointed him to the bench in 1978, Rushing engaged in a corporate finance, merger and acquisition practice with the firms of Rushing, Ames & Norman from 1974 to 1978, and Berliner, Cohen Flaherty & Rushing from 1971 to 1974. He also handled civil litigation, particularly the defense of construction industry cases.
He taught a seminar in law and literature at the University of Santa Clara Law School and was a guest lecturer at the Stanford and Boalt Hall Law Schools. He served as president of the Santa Clara County Bar Association in 1974 and as chair of the City of San Jose Charter Review Commission in 1977.
He received the Judge of the Year award from the Santa Clara County Trial Lawyers in 1994 and 1999.
The commission consisted of Chief Justice Ronald M. George, Attorney General Bill Lockyer, and Acting Presiding Justice Eugene Premo.
Copyright 2003, Metropolitan News Company