Alumni Derek Woodhouse Appointed Judge

by R. Malhotra

staff writer

In April of 2005, Derek Woodhouse, class of 1976, received the phone call he had been waiting for since he submitted his application for a judicial post one year prior. He currently serves on the Santa Clara County Superior Court Bench, in downtown San Jose, presiding over various civil and probate matters, in his words, “the best job I’ve ever had.” In between cases and his busy schedule, he found time to discuss the School of Law, ethics, rankings, politics, and where you can find him everyday in the library.

Q: What courses did you enjoy most while you were a student, and what activities did you pursue outside of classroom?

A: Certainly Labor Law, for as you know, I spent my career as a labor lawyer, representing employers. Criminal Law was interesting, and believe it or not, I enjoyed Procedure. Those are the things that come to mind. Other than that, it was pretty much part-time work followed by studying. I played a fair amount of golf when I was in law school, but I had to abandon that once I started to practice law.

Q: Are you an active alumni? What do you think could be done to boost alumni activity?

A: Not really. My big connection with Santa Clara University after graduation was, for 20 years, I worked as their labor employment lawyer – I handled the labor negotiations and employment litigation for the university. In fact, it was one of the highlights of my legal career to be able to do that.

Aside from that, I was invited to an event, along with other Santa Clara judges, to meet with the incoming first-year class, and I attended that, but other than that, well I think it’s a fabulous institution, but other than that I don’t have any thoughts on increasing alumni activity. They do a decent job of it with publications, asking for donations. Years ago I sponsored a chair at Heafey Library, so you can probably go look for it and sit on it.

Q: Last year there was a bit of an uproar over the drop of the law school’s ranking according to the U.S. News and World Report. What is your take on the issue of rankings?

A: You know, I was actively involved in recruiting for my law firm Littler Mendelson, and of course I was conscious of the supposedly good law schools, but Santa Clara has always been highly regarded by Bay Area firms. The rankings would probably be more important to somebody outside California, because I think Santa Clara has established itself as a fine institution, certainly in the Bay Area if not the state.

Q: Describe how your career has led to your judicial appointment.

A: Well my career began as a deputy district attorney, for three years. Then I spent 25 years with Littler Mendelson as a labor and employment lawyer, and my last year there I sent in an application, after the recall election. I’m a Republican, so if there had been a Republican governor, I would have submitted my application sooner because it’s something I’ve always been interested in doing.

And so I submitted my application in April 2004 after Governor Schwarzenegger was elected. I didn’t hear anything for months, and so I accepted an opportunity to go to a very nice firm, Thelen, Reid, and Priest. Shortly thereafter, however, I got the call to come interview in Sacremento. A day before my 57th birthday, I got a call that I had been appointed.

Q: What is the application and review process like for a position on the Superior Court Bench?

A: Oh, very serious. The process is run by the Judicial Nominee Evaluation Commission, the JNE Commission, and the application alone is a daunting 60 pages long. I had to submit names, addresses, and phone numbers for virtually every lawyer I had tried a case against, and submit upwards of 100 names of people who were familiar with my work, and my temperament, I guess. And the names I provided were certainly followed up on – a lot of people told me that they got questionnaires that JNE puts out.

In addition to that I did contact our district attorney, George Kennedy, and asked him if he would be willing to endorse my candidacy. I got the endorsement of our Sheriff, and several judges and several attorneys who wrote letters on my behalf. I felt as though it was a very thorough process, and ultimately, the interview by the appointment advisor in Sacramento was the final stage. You spend an hour being interviewed by a judiciary committee of the local bar.

Q: You mentioned you waited until there was a Republican in office – how important is political affiliation for this position?

A: Well, it was extremely important to Gray Davis, probably even Pete Wilson, because I don’t think he [Davis] appointed anyone who wasn’t a Democrat. Gov. Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, probably appoints one-third Democrats. Another significant percentage is “decline to state” [political affiliation], and probably no more than 60% of his appointments have been Republicans.

Q: How would you comment on this selection process?

A: I’m very impressed with my colleagues – the process works. A lot of judges, probably a dozen or more, judges on the bench, were colleagues of mine in the D.A.’s office. Several of them were elected, but I am really impressed with the work ethic and integrity of everyone on this bench.

Q: Do you think that aspect was stressed in law school? Some law schools stress ethics and integrity as part of the legal education, while others treat it as a cursory requirement.

A: Absolutely. The law school does have an ethics course, but beyond that, the entire university sort of breeds this integrity. If you ever have the pleasure of talking to the Vice President of Administration and Finance of the university, Bob Warren, he’ll tell you a story about a piece of litigation I was handling for the university.

We were going through some documents, and there was document which had a post-it on it. What was written on the post-it, well, it would not help the case, and I turned to Bob and said, “Bob, if I went to some other law school besides Santa Clara, I might be tempted to take that post-it and throw it away and not produce it.” He got a kick out of that. Just an example of how we take that stuff seriously.

Q: What advice would you give students who are interested in a summer position at a law firm or clerking for a judge?

A: Well, writing is very important. I was for many years the hiring partner at the San Jose office of Littler Mendelson, and the ability to write is really quite important. I was often distressed at the inability of law students to write, not just from Santa Clara, but across the board.

I also think it’s helpful if you get a sense of what area of the law you want to practice in. For example, I was a labor and employment lawyer. When I was interviewing students, if they had taken Labor Law, Employment Discrimination, this kind of thing, that gave them a leg up. The other thing was being able to coherently talk about a legal issue. One of my interview techniques was to ask a student to talk about some legal issue they’d looked into. It didn’t have to be labor and employment, it could be anything, but could they make me understand the issue and had they resolved it in their own minds – that was helpful.

Q: What advice would you give students who are interested in the judicial path? Was this something you had in mind as a law student, or something you gradually came to want?

A: I think I gradually became interested in it. It’s not a career that you want to pursue for money. When I was younger and worried about putting my kids through school, money loomed larger in my mind than it does now. So my advice to someone who ultimately wants to be a judge is to be a good lawyer, be a respectful human being. [Note: Superior Court judicial salary as documented by The Reporter: $139,784]

Q: Any warnings for the future attorneys who may stand in front of you one day?

A: Don’t mislead the court. Be on time. Don’t talk when somebody else is talking.

Much appreciation to Judge Derek Woodhouse for taking the time to conduct this interview. The take away message? Remember all the basics you learned in kindergarten. Maintain your integrity, because your reputation will follow you. And most importantly for you 1Ls, don’t skimp on LARAW.