Santa Clara University

Lawyers Who Lead

A profile of three Santa Clara Law alumnae who are leaders. This piece is part of a continuing series of profiles of alumni leaders.

By Susan Vogel

 

Santa Clara University School of Law has a long history of producing leaders, not only in the practice of law, but also in the judiciary, politics, community service, and business. Robert Cullen, creator of the law school’s Leadership for Lawyers course, the first in the nation, sees common characteristics in lawyers who are leaders. These include honesty, integrity, competence, and vision. All of these qualities are shared by the three alumni profiled in this article.

 

JUSTICE EDWARD A. PANELLI B.S. ’53, J.D. '55
A passion for conflict resolution

Twenty-five years ago, Negotiation and Settlement was the “yeah, sure” law school class, the one you were required to take but figured you’d never need. After all, as a litigator you were going to knock the pants off opposing counsel, not share fondue with them.

Edward Panelli B.S. ’53, J.D. ’55 had a different vision. Then a superior court judge for Santa Clara County, Panelli observed that only 5 percent of cases made it to trial; 95 percent settled. But settlements tended to be made on the courthouse steps, which meant courts were bogged down with, and litigants were paying for, all of the litigation prior to trial. “We wanted to find a way to move up the settlement process,” says Panelli.

Panelli began to educate young as well as experienced lawyers about the benefits of settling early. “He would teach us important concepts as he went through the conference,” recalls Cullen, who was a young lawyer in San Jose in the early ’80s. “We would see how he worked. His focus was always on the benefit to the litigants — fair settlements and avoiding risks and costs, and also the benefit to the court of making sure only the hardest cases got tried.”

“SCU’s Jesuit ideals strengthened what I believe are the most important qualities of a leader: integrity, honesty, forthrightness,” says Justice Edward Panelli B.S. ’53, J.D. ’55. Born in Santa Clara, in a home that was across the street from Bergin Hall, Panelli has remained close to SCU ever since. He served for 43 years on its Board of Trustees, including 19 years as its chair.

After 17 years in private practice, 22 years on the bench, and a dozen years as a mediator/arbitrator, Justice Panelli believes that the only cases that should go to trial are “those that may set a precedent or that involve an overriding public interest." In all others, he believes that the only cases that should go to trial are "those that may set a precedent or that involve an overriding public interest." In all others, believes that a just resolution can be reached through alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

The biggest obstacles to achieving this goal are, interestingly, attorneys’ own attitudes. “Because lawyers are compensated by the time they invest in their cases, sometimes it is not in the lawyer’s best interest to get the case resolved,” says Panelli. Second, and equally troubling, is “lawyer arrogance.” “To get resolution you have to be willing to compromise,” he says. “Rarely is one side 100 percent right.”

Panelli’s relationship with SCU is unique. While many alumni can say they grew up at SCU, in terms of intellect, maturity, and spirituality, few can say they literally grew up on campus. Panelli can. He was born in Santa Clara, in a home that was across the street from Bergin Hall. The site is presently marked by a plaque on the wall of the Shapell Lounge. His family moved back to Lucca, Italy when he was a baby. They returned to Santa Clara several years later, settling into a house at 576 Benton Street in a neighborhood of modest homes, canneries and a blacksmith shop. His parents were laborers who worked in fruit packing and canneries. When Panelli began school, he knew no English other than what he had picked up at a neighbor’s house.

Panelli quickly assumed leadership roles in his parish, his school, and his community. At Santa Clara High School, he was class president each of his four years. He earned his bachelor’s degree from SCU in 1953 and his law degree in 1955. Upon graduation, he co-founded Pasquinelli and Panelli in San Jose, where he practiced for 17 years and served as general counsel to SCU and the California Province of the Society of Jesus.

Panelli has kept a close relationship with SCU. He served for 43 years on its Board of Trustees, including 19 years as its chair. Panelli says, “SCU’s Jesuit ideals strengthened what I believe are the most important qualities of a leader: integrity, honesty, forthrightness.”

Panelli’s 22-year judicial career began in 1972 with his appointment to Santa Clara County’s superior court by Governor Ronald Reagan. He rose quickly in the judicial system, becoming an associate justice on the First District Court of Appeals in 1983, presiding justice of the new Sixth Appellate District Court of Appeal in 1984, and in 1985, an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, appointed by Governor George Deukmejian.

In 1994, Justice Panelli left the Supreme Court and became a private judge for the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service (JAMS), a private company specializing in ADR. He is one of JAMS’ most respected retired judges.

Panelli is widely recognized as a leader, says Cullen. One of his most respected leadership traits is honesty. “He told us that your professional reputation is the most important thing,” says Cullen. “If you want to be credible, you have to be honest. I still teach this to my students today, and he is the source of it.”

Panelli credits his parents with his values. “My immigrant parents taught me to take responsibility for my actions and encouraged me in all my endeavors. Their mantra was ‘you can be whatever you want to be if you study and work hard.’ This has guided me throughout my life.”

The leadership role that has been his most challenging, says Panelli, was his work on the California Supreme Court. “On certain cases what appeared to me to be the correct decisions were very difficult to convince others to agree to,” he says. He is inspired by the leadership of President Ronald Reagan. “You always knew where he stood,” he says. “He talked the talk and walked the walk. Sometimes you have to take a hard position, and Reagan was willing to do that.”

 

LEON PANETTA B.S. ’60, J.D. '63
Guided by ethical ideals

In 1970, Leon Panetta B.A. ’60, J.D. ’63, a 32-year-old lawyer, was about to start a new job as director of the U.S. Office for Civil Rights, responsible for enforcement of civil rights and equal education laws.

Previously, he was a special assistant to Secretary Robert Finch at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare during the Nixon administration. Prior to that, he had spent two years as an assistant to Senator Thomas Kuchel of California, his first job out of the Army. Kuchel was a moderate Republican, as was Panetta. While working for Kuchel, Panetta had drafted legislation relating to civil rights, leading to his appointment to the new position.

"In politics there has to be a line beyond which you don't go—the line that marks the difference between right and wrong, what your conscience tells you is right," says Leon Panetta B.A. '60, J.D. '63. "My family, how I was raised, my education at SCU, all reinforced my being able to see that line."

The position seemed to be an important one. The Vietnam War was raging. Race riots had erupted across the country after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil rights battles were being fought in schools, on the streets, and in prisons.

Panetta was ready to get to work, especially in the South, where racism was a deep tradition. But soon after swearing an oath to uphold the civil rights laws, he was informed that the Nixon administration had made a deal with the southern legislators, including Strom Thurmond, to “go slow” on the enforcement of the civil rights laws in the South because they were so controversial. This deal had a name as sweet as a mint julep: the “Southern Strategy.”

Panetta, a relative newcomer to politics, had to make one of the most important decisions of his life, what he describes as “a fundamental decision: whether to stand by my commitment to enforce the laws and do what I thought was right, or to back off from strong enforcement.”

In deciding what to do, he summoned the values he learned through his family and his education at SCU. “In politics there has to be a line beyond which you don’t go—the line that marks the difference between right and wrong, what your conscience tells you is right. Too often people don’t know where the line is. My family, how I was raised, my education at SCU, all reinforced my being able to see that line,” he says.

The decision to enforce the laws ultimately cost Panetta his job but he has never regretted it. Throughout his 35-plus year career in public service, he has continued to be guided by these ideals.

Panetta was born in Monterey, California, in 1938. His parents, both immigrants from Italy, worked in restaurants until they were able to open their own restaurant and buy a farm. Panetta and his two brothers washed dishes in the restaurant and worked on the farm as boys. From his early life he learned “the importance of family, of faith, of loyalty, of hard work, of caring for one another, of common sense.”

Panetta attended Catholic parochial schools and Monterey High School, where he was president of the student body. He earned a B.A. in political science from SCU, magna cum laude. At the law school, he was an editor of the Law Review.

Panetta sees leadership as having several important ingredients, including “willingness to take risks. . .and to be honest with the people who elect you and with yourself.”

When Panetta left the Office for Civil Rights, he moved to New York to work as an assistant to Mayor John Lindsay. It was his last job as a Republican. He began seeing a shift of the Republican Party to more extreme positions, and switched to the Democratic Party. He then practiced law in Monterey from 1971 to 1976, when he was elected to Congress.

Panetta served eight terms in Congress as Representative from California’s 16th (now 17th) district. He authored the Hunger Prevention Act of 1988, the Fair Employment Practices Resolution extending civil rights protections to House employees, and legislation extending Medicare and Medicaid to hospice care for the terminally ill. In addition, he was successful in introducing legislation to protect the California coast, including the creation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Panetta is well known for his leadership on budgetary matters. He served on the House Committee on the Budget for 14 years and chaired it from 1989 to 1993. In 1993, he left Congress to become President Clinton’s director of the Office of Management and Budget. He is credited with developing the 1993 budget package that resulted in a balanced federal budget and a budget surplus. Subsequently, he became chief of staff to President Clinton and served in that position until 1997.

Panetta and his wife, Sylvia, who have three grown sons, now dedicate themselves to leadership and public policy. In 1998, they established the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy. Panetta also teaches a political science course at SCU each year. (Please visit www.scu.edu/ sclaw for links to additional articles about and commentaries by Panetta.)

Panetta sees leadership as having “several important ingredients: willingness to take risks, to make decisions about what needs to be done; willingness to be honest with the people who elect you and with yourself; and integrity, meaning doing what you say you are going to do and standing by it.”

As a leader, Panetta has the additional qualities of vision and a positive attitude toward the future. Throughout his writings, even when very critical of the current leadership of this country, he demonstrates a belief in its people and their values. “I believe in the fundamental goodness of people,” he says. “I believe that regardless of whether we are in red states or blue states, there are common values we share—the ability to educate children, to have a decent job, to care for the health of our parents and our children. These are all common issues that bring people together.”

Panetta has served on SCU’s Board of Trustees since 1988.

 

ROLANDA PIERRE-DIXSON J.D. '80
A warrior in the fight
against domestic violence

Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney Rolanda Pierre-Dixon ’80 often speaks to large groups of people who have no interest whatsoever in her topic— domestic violence. Nevertheless, she launches into it, unfazed by the “this has nothing to do with me” looks on the faces before her. She knows.

Soon, as she talks about the signs of abusive relationships, the faces change. “It’s as if a light has come on,” she says. “They sit up, they listen, they become enthralled, involved.” Inevitably, “afterwards, a few people keep hanging around, and they will approach me and tell me their stories.”

Pierre-Dixon joined the D.A.’s office in 1981, becoming interested in domestic violence when a friend sought her help in getting out of an abusive relationship. She had a vision. In 1990, she created the Domestic Violence Unit, which now prosecutes about 4,000 cases a year.

"When I learned that lawyers could speak for those who can't speak for themselves, I knew it was what I wanted to do," says Rolanda Pierre-Dixon '80, Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney and founder and leader of its Domestic Violence Unit.

What is striking about Pierre-Dixon is her passion for her work and her ability to infect others with the same passion. “She has an amazing ability to get people to rally around her,” says Dan Nishigaya ’95, a supervising deputy district attorney who now manages the unit and has worked with her for eight years. “She’s an inspiring leader who leads by example,” adds Nishigaya, who teaches a Criminal Justice Internship seminar at the School of Law.

Uniquely herself, in her own words Pierre-Dixon says, “I don’t look like a lawyer, a guy in a suit.” She dresses with a flair that reflects her other passion: all kinds of music from jazz to country to hip-hop (“except the throw your mama in the trunk kind,” she notes, adding, “I may not like it but I might bump to the beat!”)

The upside of this is that she is “very approachable,” says Michelle LaForce, a deputy district attorney in the unit. “She is very strong, strong-minded, with strong opinions,” but “she is not intimidating.” Adds Nishigaya, “She is a very caring and nice person, never off-putting.”

The downside of not reflecting the stereotype is that Pierre-Dixon has been mistaken for hotel staff at an event where she was the keynote speaker.

Pierre-Dixon knew she wanted to be a lawyer since ninth grade, when a teacher told her what lawyers do. It was a perfect match for the girl whose mother, a single woman raising four girls in San Francisco’s Lakeview district, was teaching her children the importance of giving back. “My mom was always saying that if you do anything, you give back. When I learned that lawyers could speak for those who can’t speak for themselves, I knew it was what I wanted to do.”

Pierre-Dixon earned a degree in political science from San Jose State University before attending SCU’s law school. “World-renowned for its ethics,” she says, “SCU, too, was about giving back.” She honed her leadership skills as president of the Black Law Students Association.

Pierre-Dixon has received so many awards that they don’t all fit on her wall. But there is one that is prominently placed. From the Black Student Association at SCU, it calls her “a true warrior in the fight against domestic violence.”

“I’ve been fighting the battle my whole life,” she says. “First I’m African-American. Then I’m a woman. This sets you up for battle.” Pierre-Dixon, who lives with her husband and teenage daughter in San Jose, recognizes that having overcome the numerous challenges in her life has made her a great role model. Many people have told her that her story has inspired them to pursue their goals. “There is something in me,” she says, “something in my story, that inspires them.”

SUSAN VOGEL is a frequent contributor to Santa Clara Law.