- Menetrez was appointed to Division 2 of the 4th District in 2018 by Gov. Jerry Brown after serving three years as a Los Angeles County Superior Court dependency judge. He said he tries not to make oral arguments adversarial.
- "If I have something I want to ask about, I do," he said. "If I don't, I don't. If counsel is arguing a position I think is wrong, I want to make sure I understand their position but don't want to cross examine them into admitting they're wrong. I don't think that's my role."
- Menetrez's appellate appointment was a homecoming of sorts. Before becoming a judge, he spent 10 years as a research attorney for Presiding Justice Frances Rothschild of Division 1 in the 2nd District. But he said he first fell in love with appeals as a clerk for 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge A. Wallace Tashima.
- "I loved being a law clerk," he recalled. "At the time, I remember thinking, 'This is the best job I'll ever have.'"
- Menetrez said he tries to carefully craft his opinions and dissents. "Any published opinion we produce is binding on every superior court in the state for 40 million people," he said. "That's a huge responsibility. I take it very seriously and, at the same time, I do enjoy that and try to exercise careful stewardship over the development of the law."
Also in the DJ yesterday was PJ Gilbert's column titled 301* and Myron Moskovitz's Appellate Adventures. Back on Dec. 1, the DJ's Exceptionally Appealing column was Jumbled Justices, attempting to untangle confusion about SCOTUS Justices.
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