t never hurts to keep trying.
A few years after withdrawing her name for a federal judgeship in the face of a conservative outcry, San Diego County Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell has been named to the state's Fourth District Court of Appeal.
Gov. Gray Davis made the appointment Wednesday at the same time he named two San Diego lawyers -- Assistant U.S. Attorney Amalia Meza and Deputy Senior Assistant Attorney General Laura Whitcomb Halgren -- to their county's superior court.
McConnell, 57, will sit on the Fourth District's Division One, which handles cases out of San Diego and Imperial counties.
Her appointment is somewhat surprising in that Davis has tended to appoint prosecutors and other individuals with more centrist political backgrounds. McConnell, a Democrat, is a 1980 Jerry Brown appointee whose nomination for the federal bench a few years back upset conservatives.
McConnell's critics accused her at the time of being a gay rights activist because of a 1987 ruling in which she awarded custody of a teen-ager to his late father's male partner rather than his mother. McConnell, who had been nominated by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, stepped away from the judicial opportunity rather than letting the controversy continue.
McConnell made headlines again early this year when best-selling author Deepak Chopra accused her and other San Diego judges of "cronyism and corruption." The New Age writer, who faced sexual harassment suits by two former San Diego employees, contended that McConnell and the other judges favored local law firms - such as Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich, his opponents' representatives - over out-of-towners, such as his Boston firm.
According to news reports, Davis told Chopra, a fellow guest at a Long Beach conference, that his views about the San Diego judges would be taken into consideration.
McConnell said Wednesday that she's excited by the appointment and believes she'll have no trouble being confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments.
"I think I'm considered very much a middle-of-the-road judge," she said. "I've been on the bench 23 years and handled all kinds of cases."
McConnell said she expects to miss the courtroom interaction with the public and jurors. "But," she added, "every judge has a dream of being on the court of appeal."
McConnell currently handles a direct calendar civil court in San Diego and is the county's designated judge for environmental impact disputes. Before joining the superior court, she was a judge on the San Diego Municipal Court, after having worked as a civil litigation specialist for Caltrans from 1969-76 and as a partner at San Diego's Reed, McConnell & Sullivan from 1976-78.
McConnell was a founder and the first president of the Lawyers Club of San Diego and has served as president of the National Association of Women Judges, which last year named her "Judge of the Year." McConnell also headed the Court Administration Committee of the California Judges Association, served on the board of directors of California Women Lawyers and the San Diego County Bar Foundation and has been a member of the Judicial Council of California, which this year named her "Jurist of the Year."
The judge, who will be paid $152,260 a year, got her degree from Boalt Hall School of Law in 1969. If confirmed, she'll fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Don Work.
