Attorney named to Boxer panel

Attorney Candace Carroll of La Jolla will chair a judicial advisory committee responsible for making recommendations to Sen. Barbara Boxer for appointments to U.S. District Court Judge, U.S. Attorney, and U.S. Marshal.

She is the second La Jollan working on the appointment process. David S. Casey Jr. was appointed to a similar committee named by Sen. Diane Feinstein. The senators will make recommendations to the Obama administration for positions in California.

“We hope to get good, conscientious people,” she said, noting that the U.S. attorney’s spot in San Diego will be their first task.

“We’ve had a justice system dominated by Republicans for many years,” Carroll said. “I’m looking forward to the Obama administration and the Obama justice department.”

The group will have its first meeting next week.

Carroll chairs the Southern District committee - one of four in the state. She is of counsel to Sullivan Hill Lewin Rez & Engel and is a former president of California Women Lawyers. She also served as an attorney in the Appellate Court Branch of the National Labor Relations Board.

Other San Diegans advising Boxer are Sister Sally Furay, provost emerita and former academic vice president of the University of San Diego; Gregory Vega of the law firm, Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek, which has offices in Carmel Valley; Judge Annie Gutierrez, a former California Superior Court Judge as well as a former Assistant U.S. Attorney; Janice Brown, founder of Brown Law Group; Erika Hiramatsu, Deputy Attorney General in the San Diego office, and Robert Fellmeth, the Price Professor of Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego School of Law.