SAN FRANCISCO, CA- When Chief Justice Ronald M. George returns to private life at midnight on January 2, 2011, he will leave as his legacy the largest, most advanced, diverse, fair and accessible justice system in the world. Among the Chief Justice’s most important contributions over a career spanning 38 years on the bench has been his unwavering commitment to equality of access and opportunity in California’s system of justice, including his unremitting insistence on gender fairness and equality. 

 

To honor Chief Justice Ronald M. George and to celebrate the new female majority in the California judiciary for the first time in history with the incoming Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Golden Gate University School of Law presents the Second Annual Ronald M. George Distinguished Lecture, featuring women jurists at the top of their respective states’ judicial systems. This unique program will take place Tuesday, October 12, from 5-7pm at the PG&E Auditorium at 77 Beale Street, San Francisco.

 

"As I pass the leadership of our state’s courts into the keeping of our extraordinary incoming Chief Justice, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, and leave a court whose majority will be women for the first time in California’s history,” says Chief Justice George, “I am especially pleased to be in the company of this remarkable group of women Chief Justices. Each of them possesses a distinguished record of public service and has paved the way for future generations of women in the judiciary.”

 

Introduced by Chief Justice George and keynoted by National Association of Women Judges President Justice Dana Fabe of the Alaska Supreme Court, the program will feature a candid conversation among five extraordinary women serving as current or immediate-past State Supreme Court Chief Justices, from the states of Alaska, Georgia, Tennessee, Utah and Washington. 

 

Moderated by Justice Joan Dempsey Klein, Senior Presiding Justice of the California Court of Appeal, the panel will feature Justice Fabe, who will be introduced by her colleague, Golden Gate alumna Justice Morgan Christen; Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice and National Conference of Chief Justices President Christine Durham; Immediate Past Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Janice Holder; Washington State Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Madsen; and, former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, currently a partner at Schiff Hardin, LLP.

 

“We are thrilled to spotlight, in the name of our own revered Chief Justice, an exceptional group of women leaders of state courts,” says Dean Drucilla Stender Ramey. “With great power comes great opportunity, and, for women, special challenges. We hope that this candid discussion among a group of leading women Chief Justices will illuminate both the benefits and special demands for women serving at the top their state’s judiciary.

 

Golden Gate University School of Law established the Chief Justice Ronald M. George Distinguished Lecture Series for Chief Justices to share their perspectives on their experiences in their states’ justice systems and to shine a spotlight on the critical importance of the state courts in American jurisprudence. The Lecture Series is named for The Honorable Ronald M. George, who joined the Supreme Court of California as an Associate Justice in 1991 and became the Court’s 27^th Chief Justice in 1996.

 

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Dean Drucilla Ramey

Golden Gate University School of Law

Tel: 415.442.6608

Email: dramey@ggu.edu