Irascible Legend

Manuel L. Real, the nation's longest-serving active federal judge and an often-irascible figure who clashed with lawyers and the appellate courts from his bench in Los Angeles, died June 26 at age 95.

His death was announced Friday by the Central District of California.

Born in San Pedro, educated at Loyola Law School and appointed to the bench by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, Real assumed senior status last November, but continued to hear cases. Fiercely independent, he could be impatient with lawyers before him in court but was said to be kind and generous in private settings.

He was known to be proud of his 1970 order requiring the Pasadena Unified School District to desegregate. The order enjoined the district from discriminating on the basis of race. Spangler v. Pasadena City Board of Education, 311 F. Supp. 501 (C.D. Cal., Jan. 22, 1970).

There was a backlash. "My case was the first case of discrimination west of the Mississippi," he said in a rare 2016 Daily Journal interview. "I certainly lost a lot of friends as a result of that decision, but it had to be done."

"He faced down death threats over that decision, but that was immaterial to him," said Nathan J. Hochman of Browne George Ross LLP, who said he knew Real all his life due to his father's close connection to the judge. "He was there at my birth and I was there at his investiture when I was 3," said Hochman, who interned for Real and appeared before him as a prosecutor and defense attorney.

"He had a strong inner sense of justice. He actually cared deeply about the people who came before him, though that wasn't his public persona in court. I'll be curious to see how history treats him," Hochman added.

Over the years, Real became known for frequent reversals by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. At a 2016 event honoring Real's five decades on the district court, Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt said, drawing laughter, "We've had a few problems with Manny on the circuit. Judges these days, they go along to get along. Not Manny. He continued to do whatever he felt was right." Reinhardt died in 2018.

Circuit Judge Milan D. Smith said Friday, "He was an enigma. In private or in social settings he was the most gracious and genuinely nice person you could meet. Yet in the courtroom many lawyers were in enormous fear of him. He had no qualms about ignoring what we told him to do."

"Even if there were obvious structural errors in a case, he'd make it. And he was often unwilling to explain why he granted or denied summary judgment or class certification," Smith added. "He regularly thumbed his nose at the 9th Circuit and smiled while doing it. A real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and still, a likable guy."

Last year, Smith authored one of Real's last reversals, holding that Real was wrong to remand a class action against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to state court because he failed to base his decision on jurisdictional issues, as required. Kenny v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 2018 DJDAR 1123 (9th Cir., Feb. 1, 2018).

Robert L. Corbin, of counsel at Kendall Brill & Klieger LLP, said he'd appeared before Real maybe 30 times over the years, starting when he was a young lawyer. "You had to be extremely well-prepared and be willing to be engaged by a very confident, knowledgeable and forceful federal judge who would challenge you to explain your position.

"If you weren't up to the task, you could leave the courtroom feeling crushed, feeling you had to improve before you came back. We became friends who had lunch together. He'd put people on probation and meet with them every six months to see how they were doing. But he had no hesitation to put them back in prison if they didn't do well."

Echoing his comment was John D. Hanusz, a partner at Spertus, Landes & Umhofer LLP, who knew Real as a federal public defender. "He was the most thoughtful sentencing judge I've ever been before," he said. "He realized the limits of incarceration. He gave probation when he could. He saw my clients' humanity, and they were very grateful."

Rafael Bernardino Jr., a partner at Hobson Bernardino & Davis LLP, clerked for Real in the mid-1980s. "He had 50 years of law clerks on the walls of his office, just a simple office where he did all of his work, and our pictures lined his walls," Bernardino said in an email. "You had to have a certain decorum in his courtroom and he expected you to be prepared and he didn't put up with a lot of foolishness. Off the bench he was an incredibly warm and generous man."

Bernardino added in a tweet, "Impossible to state how much his example shaped my life. Justice in America has lost a great advocate, scholar and hero. A legend has passed."

Chief Judge Virginia A. Phillips said in the Central District court's announcement, "I am sad beyond words at the death of our beloved friend, colleague, mentor and leader. Judge Real has been the heart and soul of our district since it was formed in 1966, and his passing leaves an unfillable void for us, his family, the legal world and the larger community. His legacy of public service is an inspiration beyond compare."

Flags outside Central District courthouses will fly at half staff, the announcement said.

Real served in the U.S. Navy Reserve during World War II. After law school, he was an assistant U.S. attorney for what was then the Southern District of California and later worked in private practice. He was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District from 1964 to 1966. (The Central District in Los Angeles was created in 1966, leaving the headquarters for the Southern District in San Diego.)

On the bench, Real survived several attempts to rein him in. In 2007, the 9th Circuit's judicial council considered a misconduct complaint that alleged Real frequently failed to give reasons for his rulings. In 2008, it dismissed the matter, finding a lack of "clear and convincing evidence of a deliberate or arbitrary refusal."

Even so, the dismissal order noted that the council was troubled by "Judge Real's obduracy in implementing many directives from the appellate court." In re: Complaint of Judicial Misconduct, 07-89000.

Real also endured a 2006 impeachment inquiry by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee after he was accused of improperly intervening in a bankruptcy case involving a party he knew from another case. The effort was dropped, but the circuit reprimanded him.

Real denied wrongdoing. "I don't know what that was all about," he said when asked about the issue a decade later. "Here I am. I'm still here."

Names of survivors and funeral plans were not immediately available.