A San Francisco resident since 1976 and a lifelong Democrat, Judge Jeffrey Ross has dedicated his life to his family, to serving his clients and now to the court and local community.
Judge Ross earned his law degree from Stanford Law School. During college and law school he worked at the law firm that was general counsel to Planned Parenthood among other pro-choice organizations. This firm helped to establish a woman’s constitutional right to choose in the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. He worked at the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office, did volunteer research for a professor on his cases to end the death penalty and did an externship at the ACLU of Northern California, working on civil rights and liberty issues.
Throughout his 34-year legal practice, Jeff represented diverse clients in cases threatening their families, livelihood and liberty. He helped an AIDS patient regain custody of his daughter, and a Tibetan refugee secure asylum. Working with the ACLU, he represented organizations and individuals in First Amendment cases, twice arguing before the California Supreme Court.
As 1997 president of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF), Ross established the Law Academy — first at Mission High School and then at Balboa High School. The Law Academy mentors students, provides them with summer jobs in law offices and prepares them for college. As BASF president Judge Ross was active in the efforts to avoid the effects of Proposition 209 (the anti-affirmative action initiative) on the University of California and its law schools. Later he worked to defeat both Proposition 22 and Proposition 8, which were created by opponents of the court’s same-sex marriage decision.
Judge Ross was appointed to the San Francisco Superior Court in 2009, where he has worked to find alternatives to incarceration. As judge of the Veterans Justice Court for the past three years, he has worked with military veterans to help them avoid incarceration and to get them housing, mental health and drug treatment, and employment. When the veterans complete the program, their charges are dismissed or reduced.
Since 1983, Judge Ross has been president of the Michelle Platt-Ross Foundation, which supports programs at UCSF that serve hospitalized children. Ross was a board member of the national Immune Deficiency Foundation for fifteen years. Jeff and his wife Jan Platt moved to the Upper Haight in 1978 and raised their children there. Jan was a speech therapist in public schools. They have two married sons and six grandchildren.
