Joshua Groban, Gov. Jerry Brown’s long-time legal adviser, took the oath of office Thursday as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, filling a record-long vacancy and marking the final appointment the termed-out Brown will make to the high court.

Standing in front of his family, the six other justices of the Supreme Court and a Sacramento audience filled with some of the 644 jurists he helped vet as Brown’s point man on judicial appointments since 2011, Groban, 45, praised Brown for his openness to “contrary points of view and dissent” and for being “totally open to changing his mind.”