Report of the State Bar of California Judicial Nominee Evaluation (JNE) Commission [excerpts below]:
The JNE conducted its evaluation of Jeremy Goldmanon February 19, 2021, finding him to be well qualified for service on the First District Court of Appeal. According to JNE Commission rules, the rating reflects the commission’s determination that Mr. Goldman possesses qualities and attributes indicative of superior fitness to perform the appellate judicial function with a high degree of skill, effectiveness, and distinction.
Jeremy Goldman is a highly respected litigator and legal strategist who currently serves as the co-chief of appellate litigation for the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. He was born in New Jersey and raised in the small college town of Kingston, Ontario. His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father was a college professor and attorney whose practice included helping women and people of color challenge adverse tenure determinations.
Mr. Goldman received a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Toronto. During college, he took music lessons at the Royal Conservatory of Music and earned an Associate Diploma in Piano Performance. He later obtained an M.A. in Social and Political Theory from the University of Cambridge in England and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Princeton University.
After working at Harvard University as a lecturer in Social Studies, he felt called to improve the lives of others in a different way and enrolled in Yale Law School. While there, he served on the Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, and held a summer internship with the California Appellate Project–San Francisco, where he worked on habeas corpus petitions for inmates serving death sentences and met his wife who was also an intern at the time. After law school, Mr. Goldman served as a law clerk to Judge Rosemary Barkett of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Miami, who continues to serve as his mentor today.
Mr. Goldman joined Boies Schiller Flexner LLP in 2002 and became a partner in 2009. He was drawn by the opportunity to work with David Boies, who had recently argued in Bush v. Gore on behalf of Al Gore. At the firm, Mr. Goldman primarily represented large companies and credits his partner David Shapiro for giving him the opportunity to gain substantial experience, including an appellate argument during his third year with the firm. He handled three bench trials, including a four-month class action trial in the Alameda County Superior Court, and a one-month foreclosure trial in the San Francisco County Superior Court.
Mr. Goldman’s most significant trial was Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a constitutional challenge to Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. He served as second chair to David Boies and played a central role in the case. Mr. Goldman was responsible for coordinating the trial teams and preparing the case for trial. He conducted numerous interviews and depositions, and tirelessly worked to build consensus among the nonprofit organizations that had been working on the issue for decades. After the trial court judgment ruling that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional, Mr. Goldman continued to work on the case through its appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
In 2014, Mr. Goldman left Boies Schiller to pursue a career in public service at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. Five years after joining the office, he was promoted to co-chief of appellate litigation. In that role, Mr. Goldman contributes substantial time and effort to the Yale Law School’s partnership with the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, where he supervises a group of Yale law students in the conception, development, and litigation of public-interest lawsuits.
One of Mr. Goldman’s proudest moments was obtaining an injunction against the Corrective Education Company, which offered a $500 education program to people detained by retailerson suspicion of shoplifting. The city believed this program amounted to extortion and false imprisonment. He has also collaborated effectively with San Francisco’s district attorney’s office, public defender’s office, and San Francisco Pretrial Diversion Project to help develop a replacement system for cash bail when the San Francisco bail schedule was struck down as unconstitutional.
Mr. Goldman has an impeccable professional reputation reflected by his exceptionally high ratings from raters. He is extremely intellectual, intelligent, and an excellent writer who communicates clearly and persuasively in briefs and at hearings. He is also dependable, thorough, and thrives when assigned a great deal of responsibility. Raters credit him with helping the plaintiffs develop an unassailable factual record in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, reflecting Mr. Goldman’s diligence and meticulous work ethic.
Mr. Goldman’s tremendous record of success and extensive experience in civil litigation will serve him well as an Associate Justice. He has taken steps to prepare himself by speaking to appellate judge mentors and teaching other lawyers. His collegiality and humility also carry outside of the law. For these reasons, the JNE Commission found Mr. Goldman well qualified for appointment to the First District Court of Appeal.
Media coverage:
Jeremy Goldman confirmed to First District Court of Appeal (The Recorder, August 10, 2022)
Jeremy Goldman appointed to California Appellate Court (San Francisco City Attorney Magazine, June 3, 2022)
