Governor appoints two former prosecutors to state appellate court

Gov. Jerry Brown elevated two superior court judges to seats on the 1st District Court of Appeal on Wednesday. Meanwhile, his Supreme Court pick is now scheduled for a December hearing before the Commission on Judicial Appointments.

Tracie L. Brown and Ioana Petrou bring similar biographies to the job. Both are East Coast transplants with at least one immigrant parent.

Each is a Democrat who graduated from UC Berkeley School of Law then spent years in the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of California before taking the bench.

Brown was named to Division Four of the 1st District. The governor appointed her in 2013 to the San Francisco County Superior Court, where she has heard matters including criminal and domestic violence cases.

In a 2014 Daily Journal profile of Brown, San Francisco-based defense attorney Daro G. Inouye made a prediction that she was "going somewhere very quickly" and wouldn't remain on the superior court for very long.

"She had all the trappings of an outstanding jurist on any level," Inouye said Wednesday of her appellate court nomination. "I've never seen anybody work as hard as she does in trial, and I've practiced for over 42 years. It's a well-deserved appointment."

BROWN

Brown grew up in Massachusetts, the child of an American father and a Japanese mother. She graduated from Harvard before coming to UC Berkeley School of Law, then clerked for Justice M. Margaret McKeown at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. After five years as an associate at Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, she spent 11 years in the U.S. attorney's office in the civil and criminal divisions.

She was the first woman of Japanese descent to serve on the San Francisco County Superior Court.

Petrou will join Division Three. She moved with her family from Bologna, Italy, when she was 5 -- first to Queens, and later to Anaheim just before high school.

After earning her undergraduate and law degrees from UC Berkeley, she worked at several firms.

She made her mark during a six-year stint at the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco, rising to become chief of the major crimes division.

Petrou took on Medicare fraud and prosecuted several counterfeit pharmaceutical cases.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named her to the Alameda County Superior Court in 2010.

Petrou started out in the family law division but now hears complex litigation cases.

On Dec. 21, Brown's pick for the high court will go before a panel consisting of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and J. Anthony Kline, presiding justice of the 1st District Court of Appeal's Division Two.

Joshua P. Groban has been a senior adviser to Brown since 2011, helping the governor name about 600 judges and justices to state courts.

The 11 a.m. hearing will be webcast from the Supreme Court in San Francisco. Anyone who wishes to testify or provide written comments on Groban's appointment must contact the Commission by Dec. 14.

Groban has already been evaluated for a seat on the 2nd District Court of Appeal but must now go through the full process again.

Brown still has two open seats to fill on the 2nd District as well as about three dozen superior court slots. He leaves office on Jan. 7.