Presiding Justice Arthur Gilbert, one of our local (Second District, Division Six) appellate jurists, was honored last night in a ceremony held in the main reading room of the Los Angeles County Law Library, where he was presented with the Beacon of Justice award. The award was created by a group called Friends of the Los Angeles County Law Library, which describes the award this way:
Created by the FRIENDS OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY LAW LIBRARY in 2005, the BEACON OF JUSTICE AWARD is given to those whose character and outstanding service to the legal community, especially in the areas of access to justice and legal information, education, scholarship, writing and/or journalism, and public service and/or advocacy, have inspired others and brought them the respect and admiration of the legal community.
This page at the Friends’ website gives their reasons for giving this year’s award to Justice Gilbert. The first few lines:
We recognize Justice Gilbert because of his exemplary service and significant contributions to the quality of justice, legal scholarship and legal education. The quality of his writing has earned him the title, “The Court of Appeal’s poet laureate.”
It seems to me that this acknowledges that good legal writing from judges is itself a public service.
As for the awards ceremony . . . awards ceremonies can sometimes seem to drag on forever, but this one didn’t. All of the speakers were engaging and witty — even Attorney General Jerry Brown, whom most people, I suspect (then again, maybe its just me), would never guess could be so charming. Justice Gilbert’s Division Six colleague, Justice Steven Perren, did a great job as emcee.
The library was crowded with active and retired judges, and lots of appellate heavy-hitters were on hand. I met some new people and am glad I attended.
Attendees received a copy of Justice Gilbert’s recently published book, Under Submission: The Columns of Arthur Gilbert (The Rutter Group 2008), a collection of his columns that have appeared in the Daily Journal since 1988. Many of his columns are also republished on his blog, Gilbert Submits, which he subtitles, “Court of Appeal Justice Arthur Gilbert in a rare display of poor judgment shamelessly posts selected columns he has written for the Daily Journal during the last decade.”
Hmmmm . . . . turning a blog into a book. Nah, it’ll never happen here. Not because I’m a blogging purist, but because no one would ever want to assemble my posts into a book.
2 Comments
Pingback:
Pingback: