Judges and Judiciary
Jun. 20, 2002
Optimism Sits on the Juvenile Bench
HAYWARD - Alameda County Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith got to know the juvenile justice system well in her 26 years in the state attorney general's office. She often thought about presiding over a juvenile court, but never figured she'd do it so soon after getting appointed to the bench.
Winifred Smith
Superior Court Judge
Alameda County
Career Highlights: Appointed to Alameda County Superior Court, 2000; deputy attorney general, San Francisco, 1974-2000.
Law School: Boston University School of Law
Age: 52
"I'm well acquainted with the juvenile court system and I love working with kids, but I had not intended to do it quite so early on," she said in an interview. "But it's been a great experience and I'm glad I did."
Smith, 52, has been in Department 503 at the Hayward Hall of Justice since Jan. 1, presiding over a packed calendar of dependency and delinquency hearings - "300s" and "602s" in juvenile hall parlance, for the relevant code sections.
She typically sees up to 20 children and their families a day, and as many as 40 on Wednesdays' "report and review" calendar. She knows many of the legal issues from her days as a deputy attorney general, but she did that work in San Francisco, a far cry demographically from Hayward.
"There's a tremendous learning curve," she said. "I've been looking for issues that are unique to Hayward and the suburbs, and what I've found is that there are drugs everywhere. I'm getting familiar with the services available to people in this part of the county."
To be a good juvenile judge in south Alameda County requires, for example, a working knowledge of the mass transit system.
"Things are spread out down here, the buses are slow and it may take a long time for a parent to get to court or to a visitation," she said. "It's not that mom didn't want to go on the visitation, it's that she had to rely on buses to get her from Union City to Hayward."
Smith has found working directly with county social service providers markedly different than representing the state agency, and the issues the departments deal with have changed throughout her career.
"There are a number of issues that were not on the table [when I began]. It used to be that bilingual services meant Spanish and English. Now we have to provide a wide array of language services for the children," she said.
"There are many more drug babies today," she continued, "and a greater need for rehabilitation services for families and drug-exposed children."
Before she took on the juvenile assignment, Smith spent a year handling pretrial misdemeanors in the calendar court at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Oakland and occasionally pinch-hitting in welfare fraud court.
It wasn't the most glamorous of assignments, but Smith said it "was a good way to be introduced to being a judge."
"The goal was to learn criminal law, and I was able to learn the criminal justice system from the ground up, the lingo and the use of numbers," she said. "And I was so excited to be a judge, I would have done anything."
The judiciary is only Smith's second job since she graduated from Boston University School of Law in 1974. An Oakland native, she returned to the Bay Area and went to work in the attorney general's San Francisco office. After a year in the licensing department, she transferred to the Health Education & Welfare Agency, where she stayed until Gov. Gray Davis appointed her to the bench in November 2000.
Over a quarter-century, she handled everything from adoptions to student loan default cases and represented a long roster of health and social services agencies.
Smith was hired into the attorney general's office by Wiley Manuel, a family friend who was later appointed to the state Supreme Court. Smith calls Manuel her "mentor and hero." He died in 1981.
"He was a great lawyer and a man of integrity," she said. "He was very compassionate and a terrific Supreme Court justice."
A former colleague of Smith's used the same words to describe her.
"She is extremely bright and compassionate, and has terrific personal skills, which was very important because she worked in an area of high human drama. Those qualities will serve her well on the bench," said Teresa Tan, a deputy attorney general from 1980 to 1988. "At the same time, she knows the law and she'll apply it."
Tan's opinion was shared by lawyers who appear in Smith's courtroom.
"She makes the right and the tough decisions," said Victoria Wu, a deputy county counsel who appears before Smith. Wu previously was in the attorney general's Oakland office but did not know Smith. "She has a very good judicial temperament. She's firm but fair, and she listens to everybody. Every decision she makes is in the best interest of the child."
Smith believes that interest is shared by all the officers of her court.
"I really like the environment here," she said. "It's a good group of lawyers who work cooperatively in terms of doing what is in the best interest of the children."
It's true, though, that the best interests of a child can look different from the bench than they do from the courtroom floor, especially in an area where a judge has experience as a lawyer.
"From advocate to decision-maker is a big leap," Smith said. "As a lawyer, I had a point of view and had to work in my client's best interest. As a decision-maker, I have to consider everybody's point of view. It's not a difficult transition, but it's something you have to be aware of. Sometimes you have to meet people where they are."
When she needs advice, Smith turns to her veteran colleagues, Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte, who presides over the county's juvenile division, and Juvenile Court Commissioner Hilde Olds, whose office is conveniently located across the hall from Smith's
"I'm over there all the time," Smith said.
Olds, a 17-year veteran of the juvenile justice system, says Smith is too modest.
"She's a real pleasure to work with and very, very decent in terms of how she treats everybody," Olds said. "And she's already had experience with [dependency] cases, which is very helpful in her position."
Smith is served equally well by her unwavering optimism in the court's ability to help families and troubled children repair their lives.
"Families come in feeling hopeless, and part of my job is to give them hope," Smith said. "I like accomplishing things for the kids. I like having that as a goal."
Juvenile and dependency court proceedings are closed to the public. Here is a list of attorneys who practice regularly before Smith:
Victoria Wu, deputy, Alameda County counsel's office
Kathleen Pacheco, deputy, Alameda county counsel's office
Carol Joy Ricardo, deputy, Alameda County public defender's office
Matthew King
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