California Appellate Court Legacy Project
The Legacy Project recounts the stories and preserves the rich judicial history of California judges, courts, and law through the voices of the justices who helped shape the development of California law in the 20th century.
About
The California Appellate Court Legacy Project was developed in 2006 as part of statewide efforts undertaken to commemorate the Centennial of the California Courts of Appeal in 2005.
The Legacy Project oral history archive comprises more than 70 videotaped interviews of retired justices of the Courts of Appeal, as well as active justices who may be nearing retirement. Interviewers were selected from within the state's appellate branch, and in most instances the interviews were conducted by a justice who currently serves in the retired justice's former court.
The interviews touched upon a host of personal and professional recollections, including childhood and youth, education, law school years, judicial careers and other government service, judicial philosophies, notable opinions, concurrences and dissents, significant historical events, and the attitudes, events, and experiences that have shaped the justices' perspectives.
The resulting archive is a historical record of the personal experiences of individual justices and the changes that have emerged over the years in the California judicial system and the legal profession.
Interviews
Staff of the California Administrative Office of the Courts continue to schedule interviews with justices as they retire from the bench. A list of California Court of Appeal justices interviewed for the Legacy Project can be found here (PDF).
DVDs and Transcripts
A copy of each DVD is held by the California Judicial Center Library (CJCL) in San Francisco; selected DVD titles are also available in some of the libraries of the other appellate districts. Researchers can identify all of the recorded interviews in DVD format by searching CJCL's online catalog. The California Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal database, linked to the library's homepage 
, provides descriptive records and indexing of interview transcripts.
Electronic transcripts of oral history interviews are now available from CJCL's Research & Reference Services. Please send requests by e-mail to reference@jud.ca.gov or by phone to 415-865-7178.
To schedule a time to view the Appellate Court Legacy DVDs in San Francisco, please contact CJCL Research and Reference Services by e-mail to reference@jud.ca.gov or by phone to 415-865-7178. To purchase copies of the DVDs, please send requests to Legacy staff at legacyproject@jud.ca.gov.
Appellate Court Legacy Project Committee
Hon. Judith L. Haller (Chair); Hon. Richard J. McAdams, Hon. George W. Nicholson, Hon. Timothy A. Reardon, Hon. Laurence D. Rubin, Hon. Rebecca A. Wiseman, and Ms. Fran Jones.
Contact:
Paula R. Bocciardi, Lead Management and Program Analyst, at legacyproject@jud.ca.gov.
