Teri Jackson Judge Teri Jackson (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday named his first appellate justice, nominating San Francisco Superior Court Judge Teri Jackson to the First District Court of Appeal.

If confirmed by the state Commission on Judicial Appointments, Jackson, 63, will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Martin Jenkins, who left the appellate court earlier this year to become Newsom's judicial appointments secretary.

Jackson would be the first African American woman ever to serve on the San Francisco appellate court. She was also the first African American woman to serve on the San Francisco Superior Court bench when she was appointed by then-Gov. Gray Davis in 2002.

In a statement issued by the governor's office, Jackson thanked Newsom and said she feels "honored and privileged" by the nomination.

A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Jackson was an associate at Matthews & Marzulla from 1980 to 1981. She served as a deputy district attorney in the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office from 1981 to 1984, when she took a position as assistant district attorney in San Francisco. She worked at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe as of counsel from 1997 until her appointment to the bench in 2002.

Jackson has also served as an adjunct law professor at UC-Hastings College of the Law and the University of San Francisco School of Law.

Jackson has handled a wide range of calendars on the San Francisco trial court, from criminal grand jury proceedings to asbestos cases to appellate matters. She served as the court's presiding judge from 2017 to January 2019.

"I love to write," Jackson told The Recorder in a 2012 interview. "That's why I love my three years on the appellate panel because of my writing, the research, the cases that would come up and the arguments. And even when I was at the Hall of Justice, maybe it was the nature of cases I was doing—I was doing a lot of homicide—so it would not be uncommon for them to see a written decision coming from me."

In an interview with the San Francisco Attorney magazine last year, Jackson recalled being the youngest daughter of the first African American family to move into a Daly City neighborhood.

"For a long time, we all slept in the same bed," Jackson said. "If they should firebomb, if they should start shooting, my mom wanted to be able to get to her children quickly so we could escape. That's how we grew up."

Jackson said that while growing up, her parents always insisted that her older sister would become a lawyer; they named her Portia after the lawyerly character in "The Merchant of Venice."

"They took us to the movie 'To Kill a Mockingbird' when it came out and they thought, 'Teri will fall asleep and Portia will realize her destiny and become a lawyer.'" Jackson told the magazine. "Portia fell asleep, I watched the movie and I walked out and said I wanted to be like Atticus Finch and I want to do what's right, not what's popular."

Jackson, a registered Democrat, will go before the Commission on Judicial Appointments at an as-yet unscheduled hearing. The commission consists of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and J. Anthony Kline, presiding justice of the First District Court of Appeal.

Jackson's appointment would leave just one vacancy in the state's six appellate districts—in the Fourth District. Fifty-two trial court positions remain unfilled.

Appellate justices are paid $244,700 annually.

 

Read more:

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Q&A: SF Superior Court Judge Teri Jackson