Assuring Underprivileged a Voice
Jurist Credits Parents for Strong Sense of Social
Responsibility
By Tina Spee
Wednesday, October 2, 2002
Profile:
Laurie D. Zelon
Superior Court Judge Los Angeles Career highlights: Appointed by
Gov. Gray Davis to Los Angeles Superior Court, April 2000; partner,
Morrison & Foerster, 1991-2000; partner, Hufstedler, Kaus &
Ettinger (and predecessor firms), 1983-91; associate, Beardsley,
Hufstedler & Kemble (and related firms), 1977-82 Law school:
Harvard Law School Age: 49
LOS ANGELES - As an undergraduate at Cornell University, Laurie
D. Zelon monitored campus demonstrations. A member of the only
student-run chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union in New
York state, Zelon worked to resolve disputes between students and
police officers to help protect the public's right to peaceful
protest.
Thirty years later, as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, Zelon
has added the public's right to a fair trial to the list of
constitutional rights she works to preserve.
A former president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association,
Zelon, 49, says her 30 years of public-interest work have allowed
her to understand the legal needs of the underprivileged.
She emphasized "how important it is for them to feel that
they're being listened to, that they have an opportunity to say
what they need to say - for them not only to get a fair trial but
to believe that the system is being fair to them."
The attorneys who appear before Zelon attest to the fact that
counsel and clients in her courtroom have faith in her
objectiveness.
"I can't think of a single client that hasn't had a fair hearing
in front of her," Deputy Public Defender Noel Leon said. "She's
fair to both sides. It sounds crazy, but that's not always how it
is."
Described by the attorneys who appear before her as a consummate
professional, Zelon projects quiet determination, intense
intellectual curiosity, confidence and thoughtfulness, on and off
the bench.
"Her judicial temperament is excellent. She never gets ruffled,"
Deputy City Attorney Andrew Wong said. "I think she is a brilliant
jurist."
Zelon has been a longtime advocate of equal access to justice
for all and an outspoken proponent of increased, and more
stabilized, funding for legal-services programs.
But as a newly assigned judge at the Clara Shortridge Foltz
Criminal Justice Center, Zelon's day-to-day work no longer affects
the public on such a broad scale.
She is an active member of the Court-Community Outreach
Committee, the American Bar Association's Ethics 2000 Commission
and the State Bar of California's Statewide Bench-Bar
Coalition.
But her work on the bench affects the lives of the
underprivileged, as Zelon puts it, "one by one."
"I can't be an advocate anymore in the way that I was, but there
are lots of opportunities that I have found within the court that
are appropriate to the ethical limits that judges have," Zelon
said.
"I affect people's lives one person at a time in this job, but
sometimes, the effect can be pretty profound, and sometimes, it's
not what you hoped it to be," she said.
Zelon works to ensure that her misdemeanor court is a relatively
welcoming place for the defendants she comes face to face with on a
daily basis.
"I've talked to so many people over the years, either directly
or through the reports from their advocates, about how alien a
place the justice system can be, how unapproachable it can seem to
them," Zelon said.
According to the attorneys who appear before her, Zelon succeeds
in making everyone in her courtroom at ease.
"She treats everyone, from victims to defendants to attorneys,
with the highest respect," Wong said.
"A lot of my clients really feel that they're not afraid to come
to court because they know she'll listen to them, and they like her
positive reinforcement," Leon said. "She becomes familiar with
people who have been in court over and over. She actually
cares."
According to Deputy Public Defender Debbie Canada, jurors also
are impressed with the respect Zelon pays them and the gratefulness
with which she thanks them for their time.
"She's very good with juries," Canada said. "She's very polite,
and she makes them feel like their contribution to the system is
important."
Zelon acknowledges that she makes an effort to ensure that
jurors leave her courtroom with a sense of confidence in the
organization of courtroom proceedings and the effectiveness of the
trial-by-jury system.
"What I try to do, so I can get enough trial time and so that
the jurors are used in a way that makes sense to them, is start
trial by 10:30 in the morning," Zelon said. "When people are late,
it makes it hard to keep things working in a rational fashion."
While unprepared lawyers annoy her, several things about the
lawyers who appear before her impress Zelon.
"One of them is the ability to humanize the case, to take it out
of this range of procedures and rules," Zelon said. "The second
thing is getting in there, digging so hard so that they understand
completely and exactly what the facts are. ... Those are the ones
who really shine."
Zelon said her parents, an accountant and a housewife, gave her
a strong sense of social responsibility.
"No matter what I ended up doing, I think I would have found
some way within that profession to do public work, because that's
what I was taught," Zelon said. "It was always a part of me."
She was born in North Carolina and went to high school in
Westbury, N.Y. She received her bachelor's degree from Cornell
University in 1974 and then attended Harvard Law School.
At Harvard, Zelon made history when her team won the Williston
Competition, a contract-negotiating contest open to first-year law
students at the school. It was the first time a team with a female
member had won the competition.
In a class made up of 20 percent women, Zelon held the position
of editor in chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law
Review. She also was a member of the Harvard Voluntary
Defenders.
"It was an interesting time, and there were an awful lot of
changes going on," she said. "People were always aware of the issue
[of gender], but I was never denied an opportunity."
As a member of the New York Civil Liberties Union, she sat on
the board of directors and discussed issues before the union, such
as the proposed Nazi march in Skokie, Ill., in the late 1970s.
Shortly after earning her law degree, Zelon joined the American
Bar Association's young lawyers division, where she served on and
chaired several pro bono and public-service committees.
"I worked on ... helping to develop standards for pro bono
programs, encouraging recruitment, getting law schools to talk more
about pro bono, [and] getting law firms more involved in a [formal]
way," she said.
She spent 20 years as a litigator, first at Hufstedler, Kaus
& Ettinger in Los Angeles, where she combined her love of
science with her passion for litigation as an environmental law
specialist, and then at Morrison & Foerster, where the firm's
large environmental group and other science-based divisions gave
her room to expand her practice area.
Both firms allowed Zelon to focus on her private practice and do
community service. During her career, she accomplished several
things to improve legal funding for the poor, locally and
nationwide.
•
In the late 1980s, she became chair of the American Bar
Association's Standing Committee on Lawyers' Public Service
Responsibility, the group responsible for the association's
position on legal services for the poor.
•
During her 1995-96 term as president of the Los Angeles
County Bar Association, Zelon appeared before Congress and
successfully argued against its proposed elimination of the Public
Service Corp., which grants funds to independent local programs
that provide civil legal assistance to the poor.
•
After being named chair of the State Bar's Commission on
Access to Justice in 1997, Zelon worked with the state Judicial
Council, the governor's office and members of the Legislature to
establish a $10-million-a-year legal-access fund for programs that
deliver free legal services.
"The impact of her interest and work on the provision of legal
services in the state of California is immeasurable," said Patricia
Phillips, senior of-counsel for Los Angeles' Morrison &
Foerster. "Its value is felt every day by someone who would
otherwise be floundering around in the legal system yet dealing
with very serious problems."
Zelon's public-interest work has not gone unnoticed. Several
organizations that share her commitment to public service -
including the National Legal Aid & Defender Association and the
State Bar of California - have honored her.
Two years ago, Zelon received the Laurie D. Zelon Pro Bono
Award, which had been named for her one year earlier by the Law
Firm Pro Bono Project, which she'd helped found.
"I didn't find out until I was standing in the great hall of the
Supreme Court, surrounded by 300 people who were there, that the
award had been named for me and was thereafter going to be given in
my name. It's very hard to believe, for anyone who knows me well,
but I was actually speechless for a period," Zelon said.
Zelon faced one of the greatest challenges of her legal career,
she said, when her appointment to the bench forced her to switch
gears from civil litigation to criminal law.
"It was a steep learning curve for me," she said. "It's a whole
different set of processes. The rules are different. The case law
is a whole body unto itself."
Attorneys praise Zelon for her thorough understanding of the
law.
"She's extremely well-versed in the law," Leon said.
"She's very thorough in her research," Wong said.
Of course, not all attorneys concur with every decision Zelon
makes in court. Some city attorneys disagree with her
interpretation of evidentiary statutes when Zelon puts limits on
their use of hearsay testimony.
But lawyers who have appeared before her say that they
appreciate her intelligent interpretation of the law.
"Her rulings always have a firm foundation behind them no matter
which party is adversely affected," Wong said.
Zelon and her husband, certified public accountant David George,
have two sons, Jeremy and Daniel, who are college students.
Her outside interests include skiing, reading and music.
Zelon considers herself lucky because she loves her position as
a judge.
"Sometimes, when you want something a lot, there's this fear in
the back of your head that, if you get it, you're going to be
disappointed," she said. "I wanted this a lot, and I haven't been
disappointed for a minute."
But something tells those who know her that Zelon won't stay put
for long before she tackles a greater challenge, and the call that
has driven her constantly to give back to the community moves her
forward.
"I have a feeling that she's not going to be a misdemeanor trial
judge for that much longer," Wong said. "She's slated for higher
things."
