NEWS RELEASE Superior Court of California COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO 400 McAllister Street, Room 205 San Francisco, CA 94102-4512 T. MICHAEL YUEN Phone: 415-551-5737 COURT EXECUTIVE OFFICER FAX: 415-551-5701 Contact: 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 -MORE- JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS/SFSC 2-2-2-2 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. ### .