On March 8, the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) invited Judge Mary Murguia, the new 12th Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, to speak for the eighth annual Sandy Svetcov Memorial Lecture and Interview Series. The Svetcov Memorial Lecture Series honors the memory of Sandy Svetcov, who was the founder of the Ninth Circuit’s pro bono program and a pillar of the California appellate bar for 40 years. Each year BASF asks a leading member of the judiciary or bar to join us for a discussion and answer questions on aspects and features of modern law, policy, and practice.
Murguia is not only the most senior judge who hasn’t turned 65 but also the first Chief Judge of Hispanic descent in the Circuit. The panel was moderated by Ben Feuer who is the chairman of the California Appellate Law Group. This one-hour-long interview mainly discussed Murguia’s life, approach to judging, and plans for the court in the years ahead.
Early Life and Education
Murguia came from an immigrant working-class family in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood called Argentine in Kansas City. Her parents were from a small town, Michoacán, in Mexico. Her father came back to report to World War II services during the depression in Mexico and ended up immigrating to Kansas City.
After growing up with six siblings, Murguia expressed how critical it is to pursue an education for a working-class family. “I think because they (her parents) were not able to pursue an education and would have wanted to, by just their comments about how much how important education was, they set sort of a stage that flowed down to us. And we were able to appreciate how important an education was.”
Murguia obtained two undergraduate degrees in Journalism and Spanish at the University of Kansas. She then decided to study law because she wanted to work in public service and thought a law degree would be useful for pursuing a journalism career. After graduating from the University of Kansas Law School in 1985, she worked as an assistant attorney for the District Attorney’s office in Kansas City for five years.
Professional Careers
Murguia described her time in the DA’s office as a remarkable experience. “It's sort of a medium-sized office, as a result, you're given a lot of responsibility early on, and you're given a lot of autonomy and how to conduct your cases... Just the growth for me professionally as a lawyer in those five years was extraordinary. Because you had to present your cases in court and do jury trials and litigate the cases. But you also had to argue your cases before the State Court of Appeals in the Supreme Court of Kansas, and so you were doing all of that at the same time.”
In 1990, she moved to Phoenix and served as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona. She was later appointed to be the Criminal Deputy Chief to supervise the Violent Crime Unit from 1994 to 1998. Then, she became a counsel to the director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA) at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
When the director position opened in 1999, she took over as the director of EOUSA, providing executive and administrative support for the 93 U.S. attorneys located throughout the 50 states. “I never thought it would be me… I wasn't assigned that position. I was doing another job. But I did make suggestions to them, because there's a lot of good lawyers in Arizona, and I thought they would be good judges,” added Murguia.
Following a nomination by President Clinton in 2000, Murguia became a district judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. Given the tremendous caseload, her work in the district court was challenging. In addition, due to her prior experience with criminal law, working on civil cases was also a steep learning curve. However, she expressed that she was quite fortunate to love every job she has had. “[I]t's great to interact with the public, and doing everything that you could to try to administer justice fairly at the district court level.”
It's hard to divorce your upbringing, your background, who you are, experiences that you've had. That's the whole wonderful thing actually about the court, everybody brings their experience with them. And it's part of the lens, but it's ultimately guided by the law and applying the facts to the law.
After working for the District Court for a decade, Murguia was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by President Obama. She shared her hesitation in accepting the consideration, “I was the first Latina on the Arizona District Court, and I was going to lose that representation. But I also thought how important it would be to be on the circuit court as well … I just decided that I could and I should.”
Unlike her previous experience on the district court, Murguia was surprised to learn that she would be deciding cases with two other judges on the circuit court. When being asked about whether or not her family background plays a big role in her judicial decision making, she said it plays a role but not an exceptional role because it is part of who she is and how she processes the law and facts.
“It's hard to divorce your upbringing, your background, who you are, experiences that you've had. That's the whole wonderful thing actually about the court, everybody brings their experience with them. And it's part of the lens, but it's ultimately guided by the law and applying the facts to the law,” she added.
Tips for Lawyers
Murguia also shared tips and effective techniques in the trial process. She highlighted the importance of writing a strong legal brief. “Don't focus that much on split infinitives. They're necessarily bad, but I don't feel strongly about them. I think what I feel strongly about is a competent, persuasive, well-written, well-organized brief. That helps us a lot, and that's the starting point.” For more writing tips, check out our blog‘s Legal Writing Tips column.
With respect to advocacy, she suggested “I would tell any advocate to be prepared to talk and discuss about the weak points of your case, I think sometimes lawyers shy away from that, because they don't want to highlight that it might be a weakness, but I think you don't want judges talking about the weak points in your case back in conference, and you didn't have a chance to weigh in and persuade them or talk to them about that.”
Another useful tip she shared for attorneys is to learn about the standard of review and relate the facts during the oral argument to the standard in an effective way.
Lastly, she emphasized that it is more effective to write in normal plain English and to avoid unnecessary legalese. “If it's a technical matter, that's the subject of the brief, try to make it easier for the judges instead of harder, because we're generalists when we don't have the expertise and whatever it is. That might be the subject of the appeal. And because of our limited knowledge in that area, you're really helpful if that can be broken down both in the brief and oral argument. And we're not challenged by the vocabulary.”
Priorities over Seven-Year Term
When discussing her plan for her seven-year term, Murguia shared a few of her working priorities. Firstly, she emphasized a concern about the IT infrastructure challenges of practicing virtual court. Some judges would like to keep some aspects of the remote court in the future. “But we already needed updates and enhancements to IT, and just to maintain what we have, and then to try to advance that, that's going to be a big challenge. But then, security of the judiciary is important, and we continue to make progress, which I think has been substantial on workplace environment in the judiciary.”
In addition, she plans to continuously combat workplace harassment in the judiciary. “Judge Margaret McKeown for our circuit and nationally have made extraordinary strides in that area and very proud of the reforms that have been put in place and want to continue that.”
“There's no place and we just can't have tolerance for judges' inappropriate behavior, which obviously includes sexual harassment, ” she added.