City Attorney Chiu applauds the move to elevate exceptional Co-Chief of Appellate Litigation to the appellate bench
SAN FRANCISCO (June 3, 2022) — Governor Gavin Newsom announced today that he has nominated San Francisco Deputy City Attorney and Co-Chief of Appellate Litigation Jeremy Goldman to serve as a justice on the California Court of Appeal, on the First District Court’s Division Four.
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu issued the following statement in response to the announcement:
“San Francisco has been very fortunate to have Jeremy defending our City’s laws in court for so many years. While Jeremy has a brilliant legal mind and exceptional grasp of constitutional law, he is an even better person and trusted colleague. His thoughtful approach and strong sense of justice will serve him well in this new role. Jeremy’s expertise will be incredibly missed in our Office, but I am excited knowing Californians will have such a capable new judge on the bench.”
Goldman, 53, of Oakland, joined the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office as a Deputy City Attorney in September 2014. Prior to joining the office, he was a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, where he played an integral role in the lawsuit challenging and overturning Proposition 8. Goldman also previously served as a law clerk for Judge Rosemary Barkett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
He became Co-Chief of Appellate Litigation at the City Attorney’s Office in 2019, overseeing the Office’s appellate work and defending the City’s laws and procedures in federal and state courts.
Throughout his career, Goldman has taken a pragmatic approach to navigating complex legal issues while pursuing justice and fairness under the law. Goldman was a driving force behind reforming San Francisco’s unjust bail system. As a result of the novel legal strategy he proposed and the stipulated injunction he secured, San Francisco no longer has a bail schedule that arbitrarily favors wealthy defendants. Throughout that process, Goldman brought together a broad group of stakeholders with often diverging interests to create a fair system that ensures public safety and is workable for law enforcement agencies and city departments.
His work includes successfully negotiating a resolution to a complex case that resulted in hundreds of unhoused people being able to move into hotel rooms and shelters; defending laws that protect tenants from pretextual rent increases that would force them out of their homes; preventing a private company from forcing shoplifting defendants to pay for an “educational program” in order to be released from detention; and defending San Francisco’s short-term rental regulations.
Goldman is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a prestigious legal membership organization that produces scholarly work seeking to modernize, clarify, and improve the law.
He earned a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School, a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Princeton University, a Master of Philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto.
This position requires confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, which consists of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and Senior Presiding Justice Stuart R. Pollack.
The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office has seen a number of deputies and former deputies elevated to the bench in recent years. Other deputy city attorneys who went on to serve on the judiciary include San Francisco Superior Court Judges Loretta M. Giorgi (appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2006); Anne-Christine Massullo (appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2006); Andrew Y.S. Cheng (appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2009); Monica F. Wiley (appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2009); and Christine Van Aken (appointed by Gov. Brown in 2018). Deputy City Attorney Vince Chhabria was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2014 to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Also in 2014, Gov. Brown appointed San Francisco Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese M. Stewart to serve as a justice on the California Court of Appeal for the First District. In 2017, Gov. Brown appointed Danny Y. Chou, a former Chief of Appellate Litigation and former Chief of Complex and Special Litigation at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, to the San Mateo County Superior Court bench.
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