New justice lacks favor of lawyers, but has ‘gumption’

Former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Renz Jennings is one Phoenix lawyer who isn’t thrilled that Sandra O’Connor has been elevated to the U.S. Supreme . Court. He doesn’t like her. In 1978, Jennin_gs, by then having returned lo private practice, stood m open court as O’Connor, the trial Judge, told Jennings’ client that Jennings was representing him so poorly that he should get a new lawyer. Not content lo stop there, O’Connor reportedly complained to the state bar disciplinary board that Jennings then 79 years old, was senile and should be remov~d from practice. “For Sandra to do that took a lot of gumption,” says Barry Silverman, a Maricopa County commissioner who was then a prosecutor assigned to O’Connor’s court. “Jennings’ problem – missing deadlines, mishandling cases – was something all of us had winked at. But here was a trial court judge publicly declaring that a former supreme court judge was incompetent.” Sandra O’Connor’s record is that of a woman who winks at nothing. Often that has made her formal even rigid,, in demeanor. But more often, and more iinporlant, 1_t has made her a strong, sometimes gutsy judge who rigidly respects the legal process and is intolerant of those who take it less seriously. Ask defense lawyer Lionel Estrada. “She embarrassed me terribly,” he says, referring to a case in which O’Connor sentenced his client to 30 to 50 years for rape and sodomy and then vacated the conviction because Estrada had, she said, handled the case incompetently.