Prevention of Discrimination and Harassment Work Group

Charge

To further support the Judicial Branch’s commitment to a workplace free of harassment and discrimination, I am appointing a Working Group to identify and make recommendations to the Judicial Council to improve how judicial branch entities prevent and address harassing, discriminatory, and inappropriate workplace conduct based on a protected classification.

In doing so, the Working Group should solicit input from judicial officers and judicial branch employees, and consider available resources and information on best practices for ensuring workplaces free of harassment and discrimination.

The Working Group should consider, for example, proposals for:

1. New or amended Rules of Court, Standards of Judicial Administration, and/or model policies on prevention of harassment and discrimination that allow for increased awareness of prohibited and inappropriate workplace conduct based on a protected classification and the resources available to address such conduct, including:
   • Modernizing definitions and examples of inappropriate and unlawful conduct;
   • Clarifying reporting obligations;
   • Ensuring appropriate available methods of reporting harassment, discrimination, and inappropriate workplace conduct based on a protected classification;
   • Standardizing judicial branch response to complaints of harassment, discrimination, and inappropriate workplace conduct based on a protected classification; and
   • Ensuring non-retaliation and protection of victims; and
2. Improvements to judicial branch education of judicial officers and employees on harassment, discrimination, and inappropriate workplace conduct based on a protected classification, including:
   • Evaluating and considering changes to current training requirements; and
   • Broadening and updating the content of required trainings to focus on issues of harassment and discrimination prevalent in modern society.

• Hon. Stacy Boulware Eurie, Co-chair, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento
• Hon. Brad R. Hill, Co-chair, Administrative Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal Fifth Appellate District
• Hon. Kyle S. Brodie, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino
• Ms. Nancy CS Eberhardt, Court Executive Officer, Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino
• Ms. Rachel W. Hill, Attorney, Law Office of Rachel Hill & Hill Mediation Services
• Hon. Harry E. Hull, Jr., Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal Third Appellate District
• Ms. Gretchen Nelson, Attorney, Nelson & Fraenkel LLP
• Ms. Andrea K. Wallin-Rohmann, Appellate Court Clerk Executive Officer, Court of Appeal Third Appellate District

Supreme Court Liaison

• Mr. Jorge Navarrete, Court Administrator and Clerk, Supreme Court of California

Judicial Council Staff to the Committee

• Mr. Michael Etchepare, Supervising Attorney, Legal Services, Judicial Council of California

Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER) Liaison

• Ms. Catherine Ongiri, Attorney, Center for Judicial Education and Research, Judicial Council of California