Friday, August 16, 2002
Page 3
Davis Appoints Judges to Superior Courts in Sonoma, Mendocino Counties
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Gov. Gray Davis yesterday kept up his recent swift pace of trial court appointments with the selection of two North Coast civil litigators as superior court judges.
The governor picked Petaluma attorney Gary Nadler to fill a newly created post on the Sonoma Superior Court and Ukiah lawyer Leonard L. LaCasse to take a seat on the Mendocino Superior Court.
Davis now has appointed 10 judges this month, and 224 since he became governor nearly four years ago.
Nadler, 48, has been a partner at a number of Bay Area and North Coast law firms, including Herschfield & Nadler from 1982 to 1997. He is currently a partner with the Santa Rosa firm of Lanahan & Reilley.
He began his legal career as an associate with Alioto & Alioto.
Nadler is well known as an expert in litigation issues and co-authored the “California Civil Discovery Handbook.” He also wrote the first Continuing Education of the Bar “Action Guide” to interpret the California Civil Discovery Act of 1986.
He also serves as an adjunct professor of law at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where he earned his law degree.
Nadler is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo.
LaCasse, 55, is a defense litigation specialist, handling insurance defense, defense of public agencies, defense of civil rights actions against police and general commercial liability defense.
He began his career as a deputy attorney general in Sacramento and served five years as a Mendocino County prosecutor. He worked as a lawyer in the Ukiah law firm of Bell, Cox, Mannon & LaCasse from 1978 to 1991, when he opened his solo practice.
LaCasse is a graduate of Sonoma State University and earned his law degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.
Despite his flurry of appointments, Davis still faces more than 50 open spots on superior courts around the state, plus seven on the Court of Appeal, out of a total authorized number of 1,610 judges and justices.
After a salary increase that took effect July 1, superior court judges now earn $139,476 a year.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company