The Legacy of RBG and Beyond with Judges Stuart Pollak, Jeffrey Ross and Kathryn Werdegar

Join us for a conversation on our judicial system and the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Panel discussion hosted by Rabbi Jessica Zimmerman Graf with judges from Congregation Sherith Israel: Stuart Pollak, a presiding justice of the California First District Court of Appeal; Jeffrey Ross, a San Francisco Superior Court Judge; and Kathryn Werdegar, a retired justice of the California Supreme Court.

Please note, this panel will conclude at 6 pm, in time for the vice presidential debate.

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Stuart R. Pollak is a presiding justice of the California First District Court of Appeal, Division Four. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) appointed Pollak to this position on October 26, 2018. The California Commission on Judicial Appointments confirmed his nomination November 26. Pollak was an associate justice on the California First District Court of Appeal, Division Three from 2002 to 2018. He was appointed to the court by former Governor Gray Davis on January 25, 2002. Pollak was retained in 2002 and 2014. Pollak worked with Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady & Pollak, 1965-82. From 1963 to 1965, Pollak served on the United States Department of Justice, Criminal Division as Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General and was assigned to the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Jeffrey S. Ross was appointed in September, 2009 and elected in June, 2018.  He conducts civil trials and settlements and previously conducted criminal trials. He was a member —and for two years presiding judge —of the Superior Court’s Appellate Division from 2015- 2018.  He was a pro tem justice at the Court of Appeal, First District, Division Three in 2018. Judge Ross was a litigation partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and previously at Friedman, Ross & Hersh, PC.

Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar is a retired justice of the California Supreme Court.  Only the third woman to be appointed to the court, Justice Werdegar served for twenty three years. Like Justice Ginsberg, Justice Werdegar graduated first in her law school class.  Her first position after law school was in Washington D.C. with the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice in the Kennedy Administration.  When she and her husband returned to San Francisco, no major law firm in the City employed women; indeed, statewide only 3% of attorneys were women.  In the ensuing years Justice Werdegar pursued a career in research, writing and teaching while raising her and her husband’s two sons. She subsequently served as a law clerk on the California Supreme Court.

In 1991 Governor Pete Wilson appointed Justice Werdegar to the First District Court of Appeal where she was the only woman among 19 justices.  Three years later he elevated her to the California Supreme Court where she became one of two females on the court. Justice Werdegar and her husband have been members of Sherith Israel for over 50 years.

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