Free event! 1.25 hours self-study credit; 1.25 legal specialization in Appellate Law

This webinar will introduce attendees to three of the newly appointed Justices on the California Court of Appeal: Justices Rashida Adams (2d Dist., Div. 3), Daniel Bromberg (6th Dist.), and Danny Chou (1st Dist., Div. 5). The new Justices on the panel will answer questions from the moderator and from the audience regarding a wide variety of topics, including their experience so far on the bench; their approach to judging; their career paths that led them to become Court of Appeal Justices; and advice they would give to attorneys practicing before the Court of Appeal.

Moderator: Josh Patashnik, Deputy Solicitor General, California Department of Justice

Speakers:

• Justice Rashida Adams, California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Three
• Justice Daniel Bromberg, California Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District
• Justice Danny Y. Chou, California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Five

Justice Adams began her legal career in Washington, D.C., where she worked at a law firm specializing in employment discrimination and whistleblower litigation. In 2005, she joined a boutique firm in Los Angeles, where she practiced civil litigation. In 2008, Justice Adams joined the Court of Appeal as a research attorney in the Second Appellate District, Division Eight. In 2017, Governor Brown appointed Justice Adams to the Los Angeles Superior Court, where she presided over juvenile dependency and criminal courtrooms. In February 2023, Governor Newsom nominated her to the Second District Court of Appeal, Division Three. The Judicial Nominees Evaluation Commission rated her “exceptionally well qualified,” and the Commission on Judicial Appointments unanimously confirmed her in April 2023. Justice Adams graduated from Harvard University and received her law degree from Yale Law School.

Governor Newsom appointed Justice Bromberg to the Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District, in January 2023. Justice Bromberg began his legal career as an associate at Cahill Gordon & Reindel in New York, working primarily on First Amendment matters. He subsequently moved to Jones Day in Washington, D.C., where he became a partner in the appellate practice. In 2005, he moved to California to join Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, where he helped found the appellate practice group. From 2019 to 2021, Justice Bromberg served as a Deputy Secretary for Legal Affairs in the Governor’s Office, where he supervised lawyers in the California Environmental Protection Agency, Natural Resource Agency, Department of Transportation, and Department of Food and Agriculture. During this period, Justice Bromberg also supervised litigation concerning, among other things, the border wall and COVID-19 restrictions. After leaving the Governor’s Office, Justice Bromberg joined Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in San Francisco as the head of the firm’s appellate practice. In addition, in 2021 and 2022, he was a senior research fellow at the California Constitution Center at the Berkeley School of Law and a senior appellate practice fellow in the Center for Litigation and the Courts at UC College of the Law, San Francisco. Justice Bromberg is received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He clerked for the Honorable Louis F. Oberdorfer on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit and then for the Honorable A. Raymond Randolph on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Governor Newsom nominated Justice Chou to the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Five in February 2023. Justice Chou began his judicial career in February 2018 as a judge on the San Mateo County Superior Court, where he served as a civil direct calendar judge, a preliminary hearing and trial judge, a grand jury judge, and a judge on the court’s appellate division and sat as a pro tem on Division Three of the First Appellate District. He also started the court’s Community Outreach Committee—which seeks to connect San Mateo County residents, organizations, and educational institutions with their local judicial system—and served as the first chair of that Committee. Before joining the bench, Justice Chou served as the Chief of Appellate Litigation and Chief of Complex and Special Litigation for the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office and as the Assistant County Counsel supervising the Social Justice and Impact Litigation, Health and Hospitals, and Probate teams for the Santa Clara County Counsel’s Office. He has worked in the judiciary as a supervising and judicial staff attorney for Justice Janice R. Brown at the California Supreme Court, a staff attorney at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and a law clerk to Judge Stanley A. Weigel at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. He was also a litigation associate for several years at Howard, Rice, Nemorovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin. During his career, Justice Chou has served or continues to serve on the boards of the Northern District Practice Program, the Harvard Law School Association of Northern California, and the Asian Law Alliance. He has also served on the State Bar of California’s Commissions for the Revision of the Rules of Professional Conduct and as the co-chair of the judiciary committee for the Asian American Bar Association and a Ninth Circuit lawyer representative. Justice Chou received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.