NEWS RELEASE Superior Court of COUNTY OF 400 McAllister Street, Room 205 San Francisco, CA 94102-4512 T. MICHAEL YUEN Phone: 415-551-5737 COURT EXECUTIVE OFFICER FAX: 415-551-5701

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Ann E. Donlan (415) 551-5957 [email protected] Follow Us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SFSuperiorCourt

RELEASE DATE: December 31, 2012 TWO NEW JUDGES TAKE THE BENCH IN THE SAN FRANCISCO SUPERIOR COURT

New Appointments Reduce Judicial Vacancies in SF to Six

SAN FRANCISCO -- Brendan P. Conroy and Braden C. Woods have been sworn in as

members of the San Francisco Superior Court bench, Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein

announced today.

Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. appointed Judge Conroy on December 27, 2012 to fill the

vacancy created by the March 2011 retirement of Judge Mary C. Morgan. Governor Brown also

appointed Judge Woods that day to fill the vacancy created by the December 2011 retirement of

Judge Tomar Mason.

Judge Conroy, 56, has been a Certified Criminal Law Specialist who has represented

defendants in both state and federal courts in California. As an attorney at the Law Offices of

Brendan Conroy since 1992, he developed noted statewide expertise in criminal and civil mental

health law and handled approximately 100 jury trials to verdict. His areas of specialty are white

collar crimes, including RICO, Antitrust and fraud cases; narcotics offenses; driving offenses;

homicide and Three-Strikes cases; and involuntary civil commitments. From 1987 to 1991, he

served as a senior trial attorney at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. He also

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represented criminal defendants while at the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office in 1987. Judge

Conroy earned a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and a

Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, San Francisco.

Judge Woods, 46, has been an assistant district attorney at the San Francisco District

Attorney’s Office since 1996, serving as chief deputy of the Criminal Division since 2011. He also served as head of the Homicide Unit, Preliminary Hearing Unit and Cold Case Unit, which he founded in 2008. During his tenure at the DA’s Office, he also served as a trial attorney in the

Homicide Unit, Sexual Assault & Child Abuse Unit and the General Felony Unit. Prior to his service with the DA’s Office, Judge Woods was a deputy district attorney at the Kern County District

Attorney’s Office from 1994 to 1996. Judge Woods earned a J.D. from Santa Clara University

School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

The San Francisco Superior Court Bench is comprised of 52 Judges and one Commissioner.

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