My Friend Elwood Lui By Hon. Arthur Gilbert* W hen the California Supreme Court Historical Soci- Appeal. He was the young- ety requested Elwood Lui to write a piece about his est of seven children and, distinguished career, he demurred. Tiat I, his good friend like them, was delivered and colleague of 37 years, am writing the article instead of at home by a mid-wife. It Elwood confjrms that the demurrer was sustained with- is rumored that because out leave to amend. Tie motion might more accurately be of his birthing experience, Elwood Lui characterized as one to be relieved of counsel. Whatever he gave serious thought one calls it, you can be assured there is no appeal. about going into obstetrics while in grammar school. Tie ever-modest Elwood thought it unseemly that Elwood went on to L.A. High School where he ran he trumpets his countless track, excelled in his studies, and established friend- accomplishments. Tierefore ships that have lasted until this day. He and now-retired he assigned me the task from federal District Court Judge Dickran Tevrizian were which he so artfully extri- classmates. Elwood says that he and Dickran would be cated himself. To make sure the last two people his classmates would predict would I did not miss anything, he be judges. My classmates at Hollywood High School e-mailed me his unpreten- would have said the same about me. tious two-page “bio.” Tie elite Elwood’s classmates included Burt Pines, who was type is decipherable when once the Los Angeles City Attorney, who later became one is in a well-lit room and Governor Gray Davis’s judicial Appointments Secretary, has the aid of a large magni- and a Superior Court judge. Another close friend who arthur gilbert fying glass. attended L.A. High was Richard Maullin, who headed It was on August 18, 1975, that our youthful Gov- Governor Brown’s Energy Commission during his fjrst ernor Jerry Brown called Elwood to inform him of term as governor. Court of Appeal Justice Kathryn Doi his appointment to the Los Angeles Municipal Court, Todd, a dear friend of Elwood’s and mine, also attended a court that no longer exists. Tie appointment was L.A. High at the time. noteworthy, not so much because of Elwood’s Chinese We discovered years later that when Elwood and ancestry, but because his was apparently the fjrst pre- Dickran were kids, they lived near a market where my pubescent appointment to the judiciary in the United father owned a delicatessen. Tie three of us will never States. It is rumored he received a hall pass to attend his forget the pickle barrel in front of the counter, fjlled swearing-in ceremony. His seniority over me by one day with brine in which its tempting dill-green-glistening- is attributable to the haste with which he arranged to be oblong delicacies waited their turn to join a slice of rye sworn in so as not to miss Little League practice. bread. We also discovered that my wife Barbara and I have known Elwood for 37 years. Tiat is three years Elwood’s wife Crystal were classmates at John Marshall longer than Mozart lived. Elwood and I both attended High School. I have been told the school was named California’s famed Judicial College shortly afuer we were afuer a famous judge. fjrst appointed to the Municipal Court. We stayed in Was it preordained that the trajectories of our lives student dorms in Berkeley to participate in an intensive would intersect some 25 years later? two-week training program. Tiat he aided and abetted Elwood became a CPA, earned an MBA, receiving in a short-sheeting incident of a student judge does not straight A’s, and then a law degree. His sons Bradley and detract from his distinguished career. Christopher, whom I saw grow up, became successful Elwood’s parents emigrated from China in the early lawyers. part of the last century. Elwood was born in Los Angeles, Tie sofu-spoken Elwood speaks loudly through his in 1941, just a few miles from the present location of the innumerable accomplishments and contributions to the Court of Appeal where he sat as an Associate Justice in legal profession and to his community. It is no wonder Division Tiree of the Second Appellate District Court of that year afuer year he is recognized as one of the top 100 most infmuential lawyers in California. Elwood was a distinguished jurist who, afuer serving *Presiding Justice of the Second District Court of Appeal, as a Municipal and Superior Court judge, was appointed Division Six. s p r i n g / s u m m e r 2 0 1 2 · c s c h s n e w s l e t t e r 2 2
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