From Helping to Pick the Justices to Becoming One Himself

• Publication year: 2018
• Author: By Erik M. Silber

From Helping to Pick the Justices to Becoming One Himself

By Erik M. Silber

An Interview with California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban

On February 25, 2019, CLR Co-Editor in Chief Erik Silber interviewed the newest California Supreme Court Justice, Joshua Groban, in his chambers in Los Angeles, in what was his first long-form interview:

CLR: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Justice Groban:

I'm one of those lawyers who knew I wanted to be a lawyer from an early age. My grandfather was a lawyer. I came from an engaged family where talk, debate, and awareness of current events was encouraged.

CLR: Who were your role models growing up? Justice Groban: I come from a close family. For many years, my family's home was within walking distance of my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandparents' home. My grandfather was a wonderful man, and the first lawyer I knew. He was really an impressive person: A good lawyer with a keen intellect, a wonderful sense of humor, and the kind of guy you'd find in his study reading Shakespeare just to freshen up on it. My aunt was also a lawyer. My parents, though not lawyers, also were role models in terms of value systems and civic engagement.

CLR: When you were an undergraduate at Stanford, you had helped edit articles for the Stanford Law Review. How did that come about and what did you get out of that experience?

Justice Groban: It was a lucky experience. I'm not sure how long the program continued but, at least for the period I was there, they allowed three undergraduates to intern at the Law Review. Undergraduates at most campuses don't interact with graduate students and so the opportunity to interact with law students and see the kinds of issues they were thinking about, the training they were getting, the way they were taught to analyze issues, was really quite illuminating and helped confirm my desire to go to law school. It was an exciting and enriching experience. Although the law school was just steps away from my undergraduate classrooms and, in retrospect, the law students were only two or three years older than I, the law school seemed a world away. It was a good first look at what being a law student would be like.

CLR: At Harvard Law School, how did you end up working on death-penalty appeals with Professor Charles Ogletree, and what did you gain from that experience?

Justice Groban: I was interested in criminal law and respected Professor Ogletree very much. I worked with him not just on death penalty cases, but also other high-profile criminal matters, academic research, speech writing, and the like. I learned from Professor Ogletree a real sense of engagement and commitment to issues outside the four walls of the law school. On the criminal work, in particular the death-penalty work, I was able to see the importance of preparation. I helped prepare him for oral argument, and despite how prominent, knowledgeable, and articulate he was, he did not rest on his laurels. He was completely prepared for oral argument. He knew every single case cited in the briefs and was prepared to answer questions from the court about any of them.

CLR: While you were at Harvard, you also were a teaching fellow for a class on the history of the Warren Court. What led you to teach that and what lessons did you draw from the Warren Court?

Justice Groban: I had taken Professor Morton Horwitz for torts and found him to be just a wonderful, engaging, and inspiring professor. He also taught one of these core courses at the undergraduate level, and I was interested in teaching, so I jumped at the opportunity to help with his class. Although there are certainly some famous dissents from the Warren Court period, the predominant lesson I would take from that Court is that, despite sharp divisions in ideology, politics, perspective, and background, the Court really worked hard at achieving a consensus.

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CLR: After law school, you clerked for the Honorable William Conner, in White Plains, New York and then worked at Paul Weiss, a New York City law firm. What led you to the New York area to start your career and were there particular experiences you enjoyed in the Big Apple?

Justice Groban: I had intended to only spend the one year clerking in New York and then come back to California. That year whizzed by. In the interim, I had really fallen in love with the energy and excitement of Manhattan and so I decided to stay. I loved being able to walk out my front door and have the excitement of everything, from the theater to restaurants to the park, at my fingertips. But my plan was always to come back to California.

CLR: What ultimately caused you to come back to California and to Los Angeles in particular, given that you grew up in the San Diego area?

Justice Groban: I reached a period in my career that was a bit of a tipping point, and I either needed to commit to New York or go back to California. As I mentioned, I come from a close family, and most of my family remained in San Diego. So I made the decision to come back. But I had spent enough time in New York to become smitten with the energy of a big city. As a consequence, Los Angeles seemed like a natural fit.

CLR: What did you learn from your time at Paul Weiss and Munger Tolles?

Justice Groban: Those were both firms that were as committed to achieving the best results for their Fortune 100 paying clients as they were for their pro bono clients. I learned a real sense of public engagement; I learned that being a lawyer, even in private practice, allows one to do a lot of different things, including the opportunity to work on important cases that do not...