Oakland Man Appointed Judge By Gov. Brown

OAKLAND, CA — Gov. Jerry Brown Monday announced the appointment of three new superior court judges in Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

Benjamin Reyes and Wade Rhyne were appointed to Contra Costa County Superior Court and Somnath Raj Chatterjee was appointed to Alameda County Superior Court.

Reyes, 51, is an Alameda resident who has been city attorney for Union City since 2010 and for Pinole since 2004, and has been a principal at the law firm Meyers, Nave, Riback, Silver & Wilson PLC since 2005 where he counsels public agencies in the areas of energy, construction and procurement and governance law. He regularly teaches seminars on the Ralph M. Brown Act (local agency open meeting law), ethics, conflict of interest and political reform rules. He will replace retired Judge Thomas Maddock. According to his profile posted by Union City, Reyes is a 1987 graduate of University of California, Berkeley, and received his J.D. degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1992.

Rhyne, 41, of San Ramon has served as a trial attorney at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since last year and previously worked as an assistant U.S. attorney starting in 2007. He will replace retired Judge
Trevor White.

In Alameda County, Chatterjee, 47, of Oakland, will replace retired Judge Steven Brick. Chatterjee has been a partner at Antolin Agarwal and Chatterjee LLP since earlier this year, was a partner at Morrison and Foerster LLP starting in 2006, and previously served as a Contra Costa County deputy public defender from 1999 to 2000.

— Bay City News; Image via City of Union City