Roger J. Traynor

Chief Justice Roger J. Traynor served as Chair of the Judicial Council from 1964 to 1970. Chief Justice Traynor brought to the position a span of distinguished experience in academia and government.

For most of his career, he had served as a faculty member of the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1940, he was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Culbert Olson, assuming the associate justice position left vacant when Justice Gibson became Chief Justice. In 1964, Traynor became Chief Justice by appointment of Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown.

The Code of Judicial Conduct, adopted in 1972 by the American Bar Association, was based largely on the work of a special committee headed by Traynor.