Chong, Céspedes, and Shepard: Mentors and Role Models

Chong, Céspedes, and Shepard: Mentors and Role Models

By Justice George Nicholson (ret.)

Almost 35 years ago, Jerry Chong, Luis Céspedes, and Judge Renard Shepard, became presidents of their respective bar associations, the Asian Bar of Sacramento, the La Raza Lawyers (now the Cruz Reynoso Bar Association), and the Wiley Manuel Bar Association. When they took their respective offices, their three bar associations were engaged in fierce competition for the ear of the governor and for what they perceived to be too few judicial appointments for accomplished ethnic attorneys. The three men decided to set a different path, working together for the benefit of all bar associations and for ensuring sustained professional progress for ethnic bar associations and their members.

In particular, they intended to, and did, end ethnic bar competition for judicial appointments by the governor. Their impact on bench and bar inclusivity has proven substantial and enduring, all the way to the state’s highest court, where Tani Cantil-Sakauye, a former trial judge and appellate justice in Sacramento, has served as chief justice of the California Supreme Court since 2010.

The Chief Justice is the first Asian-Filipina American and the second woman to serve as the state’s chief justice. Russell Hom and Richard Sueyoshi are presiding judge and supervising civil judge of the Sacramento County Superior Court, respectively. In March 2021, Judge Hom was selected Judge of the Year by the Sacramento County Bar Association. Rob Bonta is the first Filipino American to serve as California Attorney General.

Chong, Céspedes, and Shepard worked amicably and effectively with governors of both political parties ever since, including

Governors Deukmejian, Wilson, Brown, Davis, and Schwarzeneg-

ger. Most recently, their shared vision received two remarkable successes at the hand of Governor Gavin Newsom:

First, Governor Newsom named Céspedes as his Judicial Appointments Secretary. (For more information about this appointment, see George Nicholson, “Visionary becomes state’s new judicial appointments secretary,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, https://www.dailyjournal.com/articles/361034-visionary-becomes-state-s-new-judicial-appointments-secretary.)

Second, Governor Newsom announced creation of a judicial mentoring project to encourage more lawyers to apply for positions on California’s trial and appellate benches. (See Press Release, Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, “Governor Newsom Launches California Judicial Mentor Program to Promote a Diverse and Inclusive Judiciary,” (July 1, 2021), https:// www.gov.ca.gov/2021/07/01/ governor-newsom-launches-california-judicial-mentor-program-to-promote-a-diverse-and-inclusive-judiciary.)

With Céspedes, Judge Paul A. Bacigalupo, Los Angeles County Superior Court, and a former president of the California Judges Association, co-chairs the executive committee of the governor’s Judicial Mentoring Project.

Justice Martin Jenkins, California Supreme Court (Governor Newsom’s first Judicial Appointments Secretary), Presiding Justice Lee Smalley Edmon, Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District (Los Angeles), and Justice Teri Jackson, Court of Appeal, First Appellate District (San Francisco), serve as appellate court representatives on the committee.

Judge Erica Yew, Santa Clara County Superior Court, represents medium and large counties, and Judge Todd Bottke, Tehama County Superior Court, represents small and rural counties.

Some courts will work together on regional mentorship programs, including those in Sacramento, Yolo, and El Dorado counties. (See, “California Judicial Mentor Program, Sacramento County,” https://www.saccourt.ca.gov/ outreach/california-judicial-mentor-program.aspx; more generally, see “Mentor Future Judicial Officers: Judicial Officer Mentorship Program,” https://www.courts. ca.gov/partners/judicial-officer-mentorship-program.htm.)

“The ‘Stronger Together: Judicial

George Nicholson is an Associate Justice (ret.) of the Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District

Diversity Summit 2021’ was held remotely on three Tuesday evenings on September 14, 21 and 28. This Judicial Diversity Summit is co-sponsored by the Judicial Council of California, California’s Lawyers Association and California Judges Association and has been held every five years since 2006 to assess the efforts to increase judicial diversity in California, and to make recommendations for future activities and initiatives to diversify the judiciary. The intended audience for the summit is judicial officers, attorneys and law students.” (See, “Judicial Diversity Summit 2021,” https://www.courts.ca.gov/partners/jds2021.htm.)

Another, related and enduring institution was begun by Chong, Céspedes, and Shepard more than three decades ago. Working with several other lawyers and a few judges, including several of us who would soon become members of the Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, these three individuals conceived and organized the state capitol’s first Unity Bar Dinner, an event that has continued annually ever since.

The original co-sponsors, the Asian Bar of Sacramento, the La Raza Lawyers, and the Wiley Manuel Bar Association, have since been joined by the Leonard Friedman Bar Association, South Asian Bar Association, SacLegal (Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ Bar Association,) and Women Lawyers of Sacramento. Other bar associations, including faith-based bar associations, are seeking to join.

The ongoing successes of Chong, Céspedes, and Shepard, as mentors and role models, inspired generations of Sacramento judges and lawyers to become actively involved in community outreach, including court-clergy outreach, promoting inclusion and unity on many fronts, while fostering knowledge and understanding of constitutional governance, leadership and ingenuity as a team effort.

During that time, clergy of many faiths, along with military, law enforcement, and civilian chaplains, peace officers, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, civic and educational leaders, and politicians of both parties, have actively joined the quest for inclusion and unity.

Although decades have passed since Chong, Céspedes, and Shepard began to work their inclusionary, unifying magic on Sacramento’s and California’s bench, bar, and general legal culture, the impact of their shared vision and resolve is continuing to gain in strength. I know because I have been involved with them since the beginning.

For more than 31 years as a judge, 28 years on our state court of appeal, I worked to build bridges as Thurgood Marshall implored us to do, and as I note in my recent preface, “A judicial role in calming our divided nation,” https:// journals.librarypublishing.arizona. edu/appellate/article/id/2937, and two appendices, “Court-Clergy Outreach,” https://journals. librarypublishing.arizona.edu/ appellate/article/id/2950, and “Court-Community Outreach,” https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/appellate/article/id/2951, in the special, July 2021 issue of the Journal of Appellate Practice and Process, volume 21, issue 2, https://journals. librarypublishing.arizona.edu/appellate/issue/232/info, themed: “What ails and divides our people and afflicts our nation, and what we in the law, especially state, tribal, and federal appellate court and Supreme Court judges, may do to help to mitigate, better yet, ameliorate those ailments and afflictions.”

At about the moment the special issue was published, I presented our state’s judges and lawyers with a challenge. (George Nicholson, “Lawyers and Judges: Mitigating Public Demonization and Division,” at https://www.dailyjournal.com/articles/363588-lawyers-and-judges-mitigating-public-demonization-and-division; also see, George Nicholson, “A Judges Experiences and Reflections on Restoring Community,” Court-Review, American Judges Association (Fall 2021), Volume 57, Issue 3, https://amjudges.org/ publications/court-review.html.)

Despite the inspiration and good works conceived and cobbled by Chong, Céspedes, and Shepard for so long, our state and country are increasingly cleaved. We in the law may not stand idly by while our people demonize and divide one another, resegregate, and fracture our nation.

In my view, we in the law are among the few remaining and, surely, most powerful bastions of civility, common decency, and common sense. As such, we must help lead by responding energetically and creatively to Justice Thurgood Marshall’s exhortation: “The legal system can force open doors and sometimes even knock down walls. But it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me.” (Thurgood Marshall, “The Meaning of Liberty” Remarks at Independence Hall, Philadelphia (July 4, 1992), https://constitutioncenter.org/liberty-medal/recipients/ thurgood-marshall; also see, “Robert K. Puglia, Freedom Is Not Free,” 36 McGeorge L. Rev. 751 (2005), https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2389&context=mlr.)

We, especially, our law students and young lawyers who begin early, may admire and emulate Chong, Céspedes, and Shepard, in large and small ways and, perhaps, to extend the work they have begun and, thus, help do the job consigned to us all by Justice Marshall.