Governor Brown Appoints Four Court of Appeal Justices

SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the appointment of Gordon B. Burns as associate justice, Division Five of the First District Court of Appeal and Brian S. Currey as associate justice, Division Four, Laurence D. Rubin as presiding justice, Division Five and John Shepard Wiley Jr. as associate justice, Division Eight of the Second District Court of Appeal.

First District Court of Appeal

Gordon B. Burns, 52, of Davis, has been appointed associate justice, Division Five of the First District Court of Appeal. Burns has served as undersecretary at the California Environmental Protection Agency since 2011. He was an attorney at the Resources Law Group LLC from 2010 to 2011 and served as deputy solicitor general at the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General from 2006 to 2010, where he was also a deputy attorney general from 1997 to 2006. Burns was an associate at Downey, Brand, Seymour and Rohwer from 1994 to 1997. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. Effective November 30, 2018, Burns will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Terence L. Bruiniers. This position requires confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. The Commission consists of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Senior Presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline. Burns is a Democrat.

Second District Court of Appeal

Brian S. Currey, 62, of Manhattan Beach, has been appointed associate justice, Division Four of the Second District Court of Appeal. Currey has served as a judge at the Los Angeles County Superior Court since 2014. He was of counsel at O’Melveny and Myers LLP from 2013 to 2014. Currey was deputy mayor for economic and business policy in the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 2013 and counsel to the mayor from 2010 to 2013. He was a partner at O’Melveny and Myers LLP from 1989 to 2010, where he was an associate from 1981 to 1989. Currey earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Davis. He fills the vacancy created by the elevation of Justice Nora M. Manella to presiding justice, Division Four of the Second District Court of Appeal. This position requires the completion of a review by the State Bar's Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation and confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. The Commission consists of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Senior Presiding Justice Arthur Gilbert. Currey is a Democrat.

Laurence D. Rubin, 72, of Los Angeles, has been appointed presiding justice, Division Five of the Second District Court of Appeal. Rubin has served as an associate justice at the Second District Court of Appeal since 2001. He served as a judge at the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2001 and at the Santa Monica Municipal Court from 1982 to 2001. Rubin was of counsel at Mitchell, Silberberg and Knupp in 1982 and a partner at Kaplan, Livingston, Goodwin, Berkowitz and Selvin from 1978 to 1982, where he was an associate from 1973 to 1978. He served as a law clerk for the Honorable Stanley Mosk at the California Supreme Court from 1971 to 1972. Rubin earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. He fills the vacancy created by the death of Presiding Justice Paul A. Turner. This position requires confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. The Commission consists of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Senior Presiding Justice Arthur Gilbert. Rubin is a Democrat.

John Shepard Wiley Jr., 65, of Los Angeles, has been appointed associate justice, Division Eight of the Second District Court of Appeal. Wiley has served as a judge at the Los Angeles County Superior Court since 2002. He was a policy consultant at the Federal Trade Commission in 2001 and special master at the U.S. District Court, Central District of California from 2000 to 2001. Wiley was a teacher at the Federal Judicial Center from 1995 to 2008, an examiner for the Commission on Judicial Performance and of counsel at Mayer Brown from 1995 to 1999 and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in 1998. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California from 1990 to 1994 and was counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary in 1993. He was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law from 1983 to 2005 and served as a law clerk for the Honorable Lewis F. Powell, Jr. at the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 1982 and for the Honorable Frank M. Coffin at the U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit from 1980 to 1981. Wiley earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, a Master of Arts degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Davis. He is a member of the American Law Institute. Wiley will fill the vacancy created by the elevation, subject to confirmation, of Justice Laurence D. Rubin to presiding justice, Division Five of the Second District Court of Appeal. This position requires confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. The Commission consists of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Senior Presiding Justice Arthur Gilbert. Wiley is a Democrat.

The compensation for each of these positions is $237,365.