By Sara Gold, Eastman IP
Justice Truc Do is the newest appellate justice at the California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division One, based here in San Diego. Appointed last January, Justice Do is the first Asian-American woman to serve as a justice for the Fourth District Court of Appeal. Previously, she was a judge for the San Diego Superior Court.
Born in Pleiku, Vietnam, Justice Do fled with her family to the United States in 1975 at age 3, in the midst of the Vietnam War. The family initially went to Guam and then relocated to a refugee camp at Camp Pendleton in San Diego. A Red Cross nurse whom the family met in Guam was able to work with her cousin, a San Diego resident, to find a group of United Methodist Church congregants to sponsor the Do family out of the refugee camp. The congregants helped the family of nine build its roots in San Diego and aided them every step of the way, which included finding the family a home and connecting Justice Do’s father to a job with a church-based refugee organization, a job he thrived in for nearly 30 years.
“It’s something that I always think about, for example, when I was appointed as a judge and more recently to the Court of Appeal,” Justice Do said. “It’s hard for me to stand in this position of remarkable opportunity and not feel this profound gratitude for this group of strangers who opened up their hearts and rescued us.”
Justice Do did not speak English at age 5 when she started elementary school and had to learn English as a second language. During middle and high, she worked various jobs to pitch in, including babysitting and cleaning houses. Her first job was a paper route that got passed down through the siblings. She also remembers working at the Target on Balboa Avenue while in high school.
“We were industrious because we didn’t have a choice; hard work was part of life, and we always felt quite fortunate for what we had, coming from where we were,” Justice Do said. “I am richer for the experience because I had that struggle. I grew up in a house where seven kids had to share one bathroom; as a parent, I hope that my own kids can develop that sort of grit, even though they don’t have the same struggle.”
Justice Do knew when she was in seventh grade that she wanted to be a lawyer in public service. After graduating high school at the top of her class, she worked jobs on the side in order to pay for undergraduate school at UCLA and law school at Stanford. Although she sometimes felt different from her peers at Stanford Law due to her working-class immigrant background, she greatly enjoyed law school and the knowledge and opportunities it brought her.
Exiting law school with fervent excitement but “crippling debt,” Justice Do worked at a Los Angeles law firm for two years to help pay off student loans before joining the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, where she thrived as a trial lawyer. After about ten years at the District Attorney’s Office, Justice Do was encouraged to pursue a role in the judiciary. However, she declined at that time because she believed she needed more life experience to be a great judge.
“Being a judge is not just a sum of your career as a lawyer; it’s a sum of who you are as a person,” Judge Do said. “When you sit on the bench and are making decisions, these decisions are consequential for the litigants and I think it’s important that when you make those decisions, you have empathy and understanding, which requires that you’ve been tested by life. For me, it was important that I felt ready to be a judge, not just as a lawyer but as a person.”
Instead, Justice Do became partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles and then transitioned to a partner position with Jones Day in San Diego. Then in 2014, about five years after leaving the District Attorney’s Office, Justice Do felt ready to join the judiciary and became San Diego Superior Court’s first Vietnamese American female judge.
She believes that diversity within the judiciary is important for both the decision-making process itself and public perception of and confidence in the legal system.
“Not only do diverse life experiences enrich the judicial decision-making process, but if you don’t have a justice system that represents the community, that could affect people’s view and trust of the system,” Justice Do said. “For example, my immigrant experience makes me more in tune with someone who comes into the courtroom already intimidated by the legal system and having to access it in a different language. It helps and it matters if you see someone on the bench who you feel represents you and your life experience.”
As a superior court judge, Justice Do initially worked in the criminal division before switching to family court. Now as an appellate justice, she enjoys the collaborative decision-making process and the exposure to a variety of different areas of law.
Justice Do praises the San Diego legal community’s cohesiveness and commitment to pro bono work and public outreach. She encourages law students and new lawyers to do pro bono work and community outreach in order to gain legal experience, build a professional network, and increase public confidence in the legal system.
“Being a lawyer or judge is one of the best jobs anyone can have,” Justice Do said. “I love working in the law and working in our justice system. Being a judge is my way to give back and make a real impact on someone else the way that so many people have had on me.”