I don’t know if I have a legacy. The Appellate Court, we decide a lot of cases. I don’t know what they are, but I have decided some cases that are obviously more important than others, and I hope some of those cases will last a while and that people will think they were good decisions. But, I think besides that, I’d just like to leave a legacy that one, I’ve mentored a lot of good lawyers. Federal judges have one year law clerks, so you turn over law clerks every year. They are all recent law school graduates, and I don’t know how many I’ve had- probably over 100 over the years.
But anyway, I think those people, some of them have become judges- my law clerks- a number of them are teaching in law schools, a lot of them are lawyers in private practice and government agencies, but I think all of my law clerks I have had a hand in training them and becoming lawyers so I think the legacy I leave is probably going to be more in terms that the impact that these law clerks of mine make and the careers that they have I think many years after I am gone, I would say.
Date: July 2, 2014
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Sakura Kato
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum; Japanese American Bar Association
Journal feed
