Justice Consuelo Marie Callahan, Circuit Judge, United States Courts of Appeal [55:34-60:36]

been to be on to get the judgeship first but that was okay it turned out to be it actually turned out to it turned out to be an interesting thing because while he was still later on the municipal court I was already on the state court of appeals so I guess being commissioner didn't turn out to be you know didn't turn out to be such a bad thing after all didn't hold you back at all no but I think that it was a very good place for me to start and it I really looked back fondly on those days probably more fondly now than at the time because I did a lot of traffic and I did a lot of small claims and I did everything that they wanted me essentially to do by stipulation so it was very similar to being a municipal court judge at the time but I think my time with small claims and traffic I dealt with a lot of propers I let just dealt with regular people that were coming to court were totally angry totally distraught and somehow I had to learn to make chaos out of their lives and and give them and reason with them legally without the the filter that you have when you have attorneys who understand the law and I feel that that really carried through with me in my career as I've gone along and become more removed from the actual people because I saw so many people and I'm really glad that I'm focused on that judging is really about people and people's lives and I think that those opportunities really made an indelible mark on me and and so I never even though now I don't see the parties because I'm seeing lawyers basically I'm looking at briefs I've got you know boxes of appellate records I know that there are real people behind you know behind those cases and I haven't ever lost that so I think I think people for that and I've had people compliment me after that in the sense to say well I felt really comfortable in your courtroom and even though I'm all about business I really want people to be able to come and say what they have to say and I would like to think that I'm respectful I don't put people down and I don't think that people even lawyers I don't think lawyers react well when you completely nail them and to the point where they feel humiliated that they can't answer the question and they're not even gonna come close to doing the best job that they can do and when you talk about court you really want people to come what they came to say and intimidation when it steps over the line doesn't allow people to do that so those days of communication I think have carried through with me I agree with that I read information about you and I know a lot of people say that you are a lawyers judge and that you are practical and that you keep in touch and you know it's really happening and you do realize that the law is about people and that's how you write and that's how you run a courtroom and that's what makes you accessible I read that in just about every reference I've read about you in your bio let me ask you when you were what caused the transition or when did you apply for superior court and how did that come about well I suppose it should go back to a little bit I think that says something about who I am when I decided I wanted to be a judge and that was not that was just an evolution in terms of after being in court every day as a prosecutor for all of those years and seeing a lot of different judges I said well I think that's a logical extension of my skills and it would be something that would interest me would challenge me but I told myself if I become a judge I'm gonna go to the highest court that I that as opportunities present itself I'm not going back to practicing law I'm committing myself to the judiciary and I'm going to take on any challenges that that come in front of me this is not it was not the first judicial appointment to me was not the end of it because I thought well if others present themselves I want to I want to take on those challenges and I think it's not about resting on your laurels it's about learning as much laws you can of being the best judge you can be so it was just sort of natural in the sense that when when I felt I was prepared to move on that and there were further challenges that I I wanted to do that and I saw this superior court particularly in terms of because I had been a high level prosecutor doing you know the most serious type of cases I wanted to get back in superior court where the trials are longer more complicated legal issues and I wanted to do as much civil as I could do because since the only