Wednesday, September 23, 2020

DJ profiles Justice Groban

  •  Today's DJ profiles Justice Groban in Opportunity Knocks -- After interviewing more than 1,000 judicial candidates, Justice Joshua Groban believes more than intelligence and experience are required for the job.
  • Groban helped Brown pick more than 600 judges between 2011 and 2019, and one of the governor's final choices was to name his judicial appointments advisor to the California Supreme Court. "It's one of those 'one thing leads to another' stories," Groban said.
  • Judicial appointments, of course, was the job that made Groban famous in state legal circles. Many current judges like to tell the stories of when and where they were when they received their call from the now-justice. Groban made a lot of these calls, including to three of his now-colleagues on the high court. Working together, Brown and Groban created the most diverse judiciary in state history. Of Brown's 644 choices, 44% were women and 40% were racial minorities.
  • "I came from one of those families where we ate dinner every night," he said. "Every issue of the day or from the front pages of the newspaper was discussed and debated. You were expected to have a view and you were expected to defend your view."
  • Groban graduated from Stanford University with honors, then cum laude from Harvard Law School and clerked for Judge William C. Conner in the Southern District of New York. He spent six years as an associate with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP before joining Munger Tolles & Olson LLP in 2005. Groban also taught state appellate practice at UCLA School of Law.
  • "I'm having a blast," Groban said. "I really truly feel blessed. The colleagues are amazing, the resources are astounding, the staff are top-notch and the cases are as interesting as they come. For a lawyer, it really is a dream job."