San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne
Bouliane likes to be thought of as pleasantly persistent in running her courtroom. I'm easy going, but I'm not a pushover," Bouliane said in an interview. "But I don't think
anyone needs someone barking at them."
In a recent trial where attorneys were preparing Juror questionnaires, Bouliane told counsel to keep them short.
"I'm serious about having only a three-page questionnaire," she admonished counsel. "We're not going to have a 35-page questionnaire."
In another
instance, attorneys wanted leeway in voire dire, which the judge recognized as "reasonable" but within limits.
I'm talking about viore dire for cause, not trying a case, and it's
not going to go forever," she said. "I like it crisp. Crisp is not eight hours."
Bouliane is a former prosecutor and has that no-nonsense style when necessary. But
she is also a go-with-the-flow judge, who has few hard rules in her courtroom.
"I expect courtesy to each other and professionalism, but not bickering," she said. "Bickering
is distracting."
Lawyers who have tried cases before her acknowledge that her courtroom is one of their favorites.
"When you open the book of
who's a great judge, there's her picture," said criminal defense attorney James Collins. "She's a judge who is conscientious and hardworking ... and also someone who has a heart."
Bouliane decided as a first-year law student that the best place to learn was in the courtroom more than the classroom. So she volunteered to clerk for former Judge Donald Constine.
She liked it so much, she switched her classes at Golden Gate University from day to night "and sat through a year of trials."
Bouliane then
worked for the legendary Law and Motion Judge Ira Brown for free, which she considered "an honor."
"I volunteered, got no pay, and it was the best part of my legal education," she
says.
Attorney David Given said Bouliane's "willingness to be creative" helped make his trial run smoothly last year.
A Phillips & Erlewine
partner, Given was the plantiff's attorney in the high-profile Dead Kennedys punk rock band case bought by several members against the group's founder, Jello Biafra.
Given's clients
alleged Biafra failed to pay them all they had coming and did not promote the band's song catalog. Given won a $200,000 jury verdict.
Given said he learned that with Bouliane,
"You have to be able to talk through the issues and respond to her questions."
Barbara Ann Caulfield has tried two cases before Bouliane and has pinpointed "one idiosyncratic thing"
about the judge: always make extra copies of court papers.
"Even if you gave them to her clerk, sometimes they didn't make it to her, and if they got to her, they got misplaced on
her desk," said Caulfield, a senior associate with LaFollette Johnson DeHaas Fesler Silberberg & Ames. "I don't want to say she lost things, but they would be hard to find."
Although she tries to be accommodating, Bouliane reminds lawyers that they don't run the courtroom. She does.
"I don't think I know everything," she
said. "Lawyers know what I want, but I make the ultimate decisions ... I have the final word, and it's my responsibility. If things don't go well (at trial) it's my responsibility."
If there is one point on which Bouliane is "a stickler," it's don't keep the jury waiting with a last-minute motion or an issue that will send jurors from the courtroom.
"If something comes up before continuing with a witness, we should do it on our time, like before a trial or at lunch," the judge said. "I know stuff comes up, but you have to be
considerate of the jury."
"I don't want the jury sitting in the hallway," she said.
Mark Nicco is a criminal defense attorney who says that
Bouliane wants attorneys to be respectful of her court personel, too. It'll help you in court, he says.
Although she's a judge who "won't be bamboozled," Nicco said, subtler
efforts may work.
"Being a male attorney, I know she likes real good ties. She's a visual person," he said. "I always buy a couple new ties when I'm going to trial
before her."
