Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Page 5
Justice Bedsworth Tells Lawyers to Enjoy Their Success
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Justice William Bedsworth of the Fourth District Court of Appeal told lawyers at the State Bar convention that they are all successful, and urged them to stop and savor that success.
Speaking at a breakfast co-sponsored by the bar’s Business Law Section, Bedsworth recalled how what started out as a kidney stone that ruined a day of golf turned into a life-threatening heart infection, which in turn led to a life-threatening aneurysm requiring a 10-hour cranial surgery. Before that surgery, doctors advised him to say good-bye to his loved ones, he said.
Bedsworth said before all this happened he was in excellent health, ate well and exercised, and assumed that he had an implied agreement with God that he would get to see his children grow up.
But, he warned, “You get no guarantees. Daddies die too, so do mommies.”
The justice advised his audience not to measure themselves against leaders of the State Bar. Instead, he suggested, “compare yourself with your fifth grade class.”
”By any measure, you are a success. Stop and enjoy it.”
When not on the bench, Bedsworth authors a nationally-syndicated monthly humor column entitled “A Criminal Waste of Space,” and works as a goal judge at Anaheim Ducks games for the National Hockey League.
During the breakfast, the Business Section awarded its Lifetime Achievement Award to Roland E. Brandel, with the San Francisco office of Morrison & Foerster.
Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company