New Judges Appointed To SF County Superior Court Bench
by Eve Batey | September 2, 2009 1:38 am	| in News | 0
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday appointed five new judges, all Bay Area residents, to the San Francisco County Superior Court bench.
Andrew Y.S. Chang, a 42-year-old Piedmont resident, filled the vacancy left after the retirement of Judge John Dearman.
Cheng, a Democrat, has served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the U.S. Attorney's Office since 2003 and as deputy chief of the civil division since 2006.
He has also been an adjunct professor of law at University of California Hastings, College of the Law since 2006, and served as a deputy city attorney for the City and County of San Francisco from 1997 to 2003.
Cheng earned a law degree from Yale Law School and an undergraduate degree from Columbia University.
James P. Collins, 65, of Greenbrae, is filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Diane Wick.
Collins, a Democrat, has worked as a sole practitioner in San Francisco since 1978. He earned a law degree from Lincoln Law School after earning his undergraduate degree at the University of San Francisco.
Samuel K. Feng, a 51-year-old San Francisco man, has been a partner at the firm Feng and Lee since 1998, and also has experience as the house counsel for the California State Automobile Association.
Feng, a Republican, earned his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California.
He is filling the vacancy created by the conversion of a court commissioner position.
Jeffrey S. Ross, 58, of San Francisco, has served as an attorney for Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman since 1999. Ross, a Democrat, earned his law degree from Stanford Law School and his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan.
Ross is filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Anne E. Bouliane.
Monica F. Wiley, a 39-year-old Oakland woman, has served as a senior associate at the law firm Carlson Calladine and Peterson since 2007.
She worked from 1996 to 2007 as a deputy city attorney for the San Francisco City Attorney's Office and also worked as a legal research attorney for the San Francisco County Superior Court in 1996.
Wiley, a Democrat, earned her law degree from the Howard University School of Law and her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
She fills the vacancy created by Judge Robert Dondero's elevation to the District Court of Appeal.
The salary for the judges is $178,789 a year.
Eve Batey is the editor and publisher of the San Francisco Appeal. She used to be the San Francisco Chronicle's Deputy Managing Editor for Online, and started at the Chronicle as their blogging and interactive editor. Before that, she was a co-founding writer and the lead editor of SFist. She's been in the city since 1997, presently living in the Outer Sunset with her husband, cat, and dog. You can reach Eve at eve@sfappeal.com.