Supreme Court Appoints Two New Members of Commission on Judicial Performance

February 25, 2013

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Supreme Court Appoints Two New Members of Commission on Judicial Performance

Justice Ignazio J. Ruvolo and Judge Thomas M. Maddock

SAN FRANCISCO—The California Supreme Court today announced the appointment, by unanimous vote, of Justice Ignazio J. Ruvolo, Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Four (San Francisco), and Judge Thomas M. Maddock of the Superior Court of Contra Costa County, as members of the Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP). Justice Ruvolo’s four-year term will begin on May 1, 2013 and Judge Maddock’s four-year term will begin April 1, 2013.

Presiding Justice Ruvolo will succeed Administrative Presiding Justice Judith D. McConnell of the Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District (San Diego) and Judge Maddock will succeed Judge Frederick P. Horn of the Superior Court of Orange County. Justice McConnell was appointed to the CJP on March 30, 2005 and reappointed in 2009. Judge Horn was appointed on October 22, 2003, and reappointed in 2005 and 2009. Their second full terms end on February 28, 2013, following years of dedicated service to the CJP, the judicial branch, and the people of California.

Justice Ruvolo has served on the Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, since his appointment in 1996 and was appointed Presiding Justice of Division Four in 2006. Prior to his appointment to the appellate bench, Justice Ruvolo was a superior court judge in Contra Costa County and was elected to judicial office by popular vote three times.

Currently serving on the State Bar Commission on Revision of Rules of Professional Conduct and the San Francisco Bar Association’s Ethics Committee, Justice Ruvolo has been a member, vice-chair, and chair of the California Judges Association’s Judicial Ethics Committee, a member of the American Bar Association’s Litigation Section Committee on Professional Responsibility, chair and special advisor to the State Bar of California’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct, and president of the Contra Costa Bar Association’s Section on Professional Responsibility and Practice.

Justice Ruvolo has been a member of the Judicial Council’s Task Force on Jury Instructions, Advisory Committee on Civil and Small Claims Actions, Appellate Advisory Committee, and the Center for Judicial Education and Research’s Planning Committee and California Judicial College.

Before being appointed to the superior court bench, Justice Ruvolo was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice and an attorney with a Bay Area law firm. He was honored with a formal commendation from the Director of the U.S. Marshal Service, the Trial Judge of the Year Award by the Alameda Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association and the Appellate Justice of the Year Award by the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. He is currently an adjunct professor at UC Hastings College of the Law and an emeritus member of the Robert G. McGrath American Inns of Court.

Judge Maddock has served on the Contra Costa court since his appointment in 1998. His primary assignment is felony trials and he served as an unlimited civil trial judge, felony calendar judge, and juvenile court judge.  In addition, Judge Maddock has been a supervising judge, assistant presiding judge, and presiding judge of the Contra Costa Superior Court, and has twice been re-elected judge by popular vote.

In 2006 Judge Maddock was appointed to the Judicial Council—the policymaking and deliberative body of the judicial branch. He currently is a member of the council’s Advisory Committee on Financial Accountability and Efficiency for the Judicial Branch and the Court Emergency Response and Security Task Force, and previously sat on the Trial Court Budget Working Group and served as a faculty member for the Center for Judicial Education and Research.

Judge Maddock has a long career of committed public service as deputy district attorney for Contra Costa and El Dorado Counties, public advisor to the California Energy Commission, deputy director of the California Department of Consumer Affairs, chief deputy director of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and undersecretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency. He also served in the U.S. Coast Guard on active duty and in the reserves, and was honored with the Humanitarian Service Medal and the Coast Guard Achievement Medal.

The CJP is an independent state agency responsible for investigating complaints of judicial misconduct and judicial incapacity and for disciplining judges under article VI, section 18 of the California Constitution.
 
The CJP is composed of 11 members: 3 judges appointed by the California Supreme Court, 4 members appointed by the Governor (2 attorneys and 2 non-attorney public members), 2 public members appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, and 2 public members appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules. Appointments are for four-year terms.

For more information about the CJP, see its Web site at http://www.cjp.ca.gov/.