Partner and chair of the firm’s Appellate Practice Group Don Willenburg has been re-appointed to the Information Technology Advisory Committee, reporting to California’s Judicial Council. The council is the governing body for the judicial branch. The committee, established by the California Rules of Court, “makes recommendations to the council for improving the administration of justice through the use of technology and for fostering cooperative endeavors to resolve common technological issues with other stakeholders in the justice system.” It also “sponsor[s] ... projects and initiatives that apply technology to the work of the courts.”
Willenburg’s work on this committee has included involvement in statutory and rule changes to enable and encourage e-filing; privacy guidelines for court use of information stored electronically; issues related to remote appearances, and use of remote interpreters; and the use of technology to assist self-represented litigants.
Willenburg is the sole attorney representative on the committee, which is mainly comprised of judges, justices and court technical or executive staff. He was appointed by the State Bar of California.
Don Willenburg is a partner in the firm's Oakland and San Francisco offices. He is past chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and presently chairs the amicus briefs committee of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada. Willenburg has extensive experience in appeals and writs, as well as dispositive trial court motions, in a variety of substantive areas of the law, including product liability, employment, and construction. He serves as editor of the firm's blog Environmental and Toxic Tort Defense Insight.