Expungement Project Reboot

Heather Tiffee, Managing Attorney of Capital Pro Bono.

Expungement Project

Reboot By Heather Tiffee

After a three year hiatus, Capital Pro Bono has revived its Misdemeanor Expungement Project and needs attorney volunteers to assist with interviewing clients and preparing expungement petitions. No experience is needed, as our staff will provide training.

While receiving an expungement does not remove all evidence of a conviction from one’s record, it does dramatically increase their ability to qualify for jobs and housing that would otherwise be unavailable to them. We will initially be focusing on Sacramento County convictions, but hope to be able to address convictions in many of the surrounding counties by the end of the year.

Please contact Managing Attorney, Heather Tiffee, at htiffee@capitalprobono for more information on how you can get involved. Or contact us through our website: capitalprobono.org.

SAVE THE DATE 15th Annual Diversity Law Student Reception

September 10, 2022 1-4 pm in Davis

Tentatively in person and more details to come

REMARKS BY: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Consuelo Callahan Chief Justice of California Tani Cantil-Sakauye Judicial Appointments Secretary Luis Céspedes

Justice Laurie M. Earl Confirmed To The Third Appellate District

By Justice M. Kathleen Butz (Ret.)

Justice M. Kathleen Butz (Ret.), Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District – civil litigator, Nevada County trial judge, and appellate justice for 38 years.

Justice Laurie M. Earl

On January 6, 2022, the Honorable Laurie M. Earl was sworn in by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye to the Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, making history as just the ninth woman to serve in the court’s 117-year history, and its first openly gay justice.

The Commission on Judicial Appointments (Commission), composed of Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and Administrative Presiding Justice Vance W. Raye, convened virtually to receive the evaluation of the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation (JNE Commission), which found Justice Earl exceptionally well qualified for the appellate bench. The 2021 JNE Chair, Stella Ngai, described Justice Earl as possessing “qualities and attributes of remarkable or extraordinary superiority” for the appellate court. The Commission’s unanimous vote to confirm Justice Earl quickly followed. While missing the intimacy of an in-person hearing with the nominee’s family and friends present, her transition from Sacramento Superior Court judge to appellate justice was nonetheless a moving and happy occasion.

Speakers described the warmth, character, graciousness, courage and substantial legal talents of Justice Earl. Associate Justice Marsha Slough, Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Two, served with Justice Earl when Earl co-chaired the Judicial Council’s Trial Court Budget Advisory Committee, which in 2013 developed a historic new funding allocation methodology based on resource utilization and funding need, a method still in use today. Under the methodology, some courts agreed to accept a reduced percentage of funding in order to achieve more equitable funding for all trial courts. Justice Slough attributed the initiative’s success to Justice Earl’s leadership and her “deep sense of care for doing the right thing in the right way.” In a letter to the Commission, Fresno County Superior Court Judge Jonathan B. Conklin also emphasized Justice Earl’s vital role in bringing the trial courts together on the funding formula.

Sacramento County Superior Court Presiding Judge Michael G. Bowman spoke of knowing Justice Earl for almost 30 years, going back to the time that he was a private criminal defense attorney opposing Justice Earl who then worked as a Deputy District Attorney for Sacramento County. He later appeared before her when she was elevated to the bench, and in 2013 joined her on the bench. He describes her as “always staunchly ethical in her representation and consistently act[ing] with an eye toward justice . . . she was grace under fire.” As a judge, he stated, “she takes the job seriously without taking herself too seriously,” concluding that she “will make an excellent justice because she is already an excellent judge, and as equally if not more importantly, she is an excellent person.”

Justice Earl mentored Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Shama Hakim Mesiwala when Judge Mesiwala was assigned to the juvenile dependency court. Judge Mesiwala described Justice Earl’s “humanity and humility”