Today’s DJ profiles 1/5’s Justice Needham in A Great Dissenter: Justice Henry E. Needham is often vindicated by the state Supreme Court.

  • Needham, who declined to be interviewed for this article, was born in Mississippi but grew up in Berkeley. In 1965, he graduated from Fisk University, a historically Black university in Nashville. He graduated from San Francisco Law School in 1979 after working as a life insurance salesman in Oakland.
  • Needham next worked as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, went into private practice as a sole practitioner, and then worked as an associate and partner handling medical malpractice defense cases at the firm known as Anderson, Galloway & Lucchese. In 1996, Gov. Pete Wilson appointed him to the Alameda County Superior Court. In 2006, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named him to the appellate court.
  • [At oral argument he] is “quite active in terms of questioning of the lawyers. He expresses skepticism if an answer seems to miss the mark, or support if a lawyer makes a good point.”
On May 12 (6-7pm), ABTL presents An Evening with the Honorable Martin J. Jenkins, interviewed by LASC Judge Kevin Brazile. Register here (free for sitting judges).