Gov. Gavin Newsom nominated Judge Teri L. Jackson, associate justice of the First District Court of Appeal, Division Three, in San Francisco.
If confirmed, Jackson, 63, a Democrat from San Mateo, will be the first African American woman in the history of the state to serve on the court. The only other African American woman to serve on a California appellate court bench was Justice Arleigh Woods who was a justice on the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Southern California. Former Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Woods, who is now retired, in 1980 during his first governorship.
“Gov. Newsom has a commitment to diversity and this is one more piece of evidence,” said Alice Huffman, president of the NAACP California-Hawaii Conference, responding to Jackson’s nomination.
In 2002, Jackson made history, too. Gov. Gray Davis appointed her to the San Francisco County Superior Court that year, making her the first Black woman to serve on that court.
As an educator, Jackson has worked as a professor at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
She also worked in private practice and as a counsel at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, an international law firm based in San Francisco.
In public service, she worked as an assistant district attorney in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office from 1984 to 1997. Before that, she was a deputy district attorney in the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office from 1981 to 1984.
Jackson, a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., will earn an annual salary of $244,700, if confirmed, according to the governor’s office.
Her nomination is subject to review by the State Bar’s Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation. The Commission on Judicial Appointments will also have to vet and confirm her nomination.
