At 87, Forever Young Joan Dempsey Klein Wins Another Honor and Might Consider Retirement

• Jurisdiction: California,United States
• Citation: Vol. 11 No. 2011 Pg. 04
• Publication year: 2011
• Pages: 04
• Year: 2011

California Bar Journal 2011.

CBJ - November 2011 #04. At 87, forever young Joan Dempsey Klein wins another honor and might consider retirement

The California Lawyer
November 2011

At 87, forever young Joan Dempsey Klein wins another honor and might consider retirement

By Diane Curtis
Staff Writer

"Longevity and hard work" is how Joan Dempsey Klein good-naturedly explains her latest award, the prestigious Bernard E. Witkin Medal from the State Bar of California. After accepting the honor at the bar's Annual Meeting in Long Beach, the 87-year-old Klein went right back to her more than full-time job as presiding justice of the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Three in Los Angeles, a post she has held since 1978.

Joan Dempsey Klein

"I loved Bernie Witkin," Klein says of the medal's namesake, who died in 1995. "He absolutely was a giant among all legal scholars . . . I have tried my darnedest over the years in crafting my opinions to follow his approach in terms of how you state an issue and how you go about resolving it." His books on the law, she said, are direct and simple to understand yet "highly comprehensive," "thorough" and "erudite." "The idea that this is a recognition in his name makes my heart go pitty-pat."

The Witkin Medal goes to someone "whose outstanding contributions and achievements have enriched the legal profession and exalted the science of jurisprudence." A resolution signed by former State Bar President William Hebert thanked...