County judge appointed to state Court of Appeal
SAN JOSE >> Superior Court Judge Allison Marston Danner, who has served in Santa Clara County since 2012, was appointed to serve as an associate justice for the Sixth District Court of Appeal, the governor’s office announced Friday.
Danner, who is well respected in the county and boasts an expansive legal pedigree, was selected by Gov. Jerry Brown and replaces Justice Mary Greenwood, who was promoted to presiding justice for the San Jose-based appellate court, which shapes law from Silicon Valley to Monterey.
“I am honored by my appointment to the Sixth District Court of Appeal by Gov. Brown,” Danner said in a statement. “I have been so grateful for the opportunity to sit on the Santa Clara County Superior Court. I look forward to the challenges of my new position and the opportunity to serve the residents of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties.”
Danner’s name has been on a short list for the appellate court for at least a year. Greenwood, who became a county judge alongside Danner in 2012 and has her own set of local ties as a former chief public defender, was appointed to the Sixth District court in 2017 and was elevated to the presiding post in February.
Before Danner’s current judgeship, the 47-year-old Palo Alto resident was assistant U.S. attorney in the criminal division for the Northern District of California for five years, a span that included a one-year leave in 2009 to serve as an attorney-adviser at the Office of Legal Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Danner was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and UCLA’s School of Law in 2006, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School from 2001 to 2007, and a lecturer at Stanford Law School — where she earned her law degree — in 2000. She clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens from 1998 to 1999. Her bachelor’s degree is from Williams College.
She is also retired Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Alden Danner’s daughter-in-law.
The appointment is subject to formal confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, which consists of state Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani CantilSakauye, Attorney General Xavier Becerra, and Greenwood.
Danner’s new position draws a yearly salary of $228,918, according to the governor’s office.
In the same announcement for Danner, Brown’s office also announced the appointment of longtime Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Gail Ruderman Feuer to serve as an associate justice for Divison Seven of the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles.