SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the appointments of Allison M. Danner and Mary J. Greenwood to judgeships in the Santa Clara County Superior Court.
Allison M. Danner, 41, of Palo Alto, has served as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division for the Northern District of California since 2007. She took a leave to serve as an attorney-adviser at the Office of Legal Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice from 2009 to 2010. Danner was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law in 2006, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School from 2001 to 2007 and a lecturer at Stanford Law School in 2000. She served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens from 1998 to 1999. Danner earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Stanford Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College. She fills the vacancy created by the appointment of Judge Edward J. Davila to the U.S. District Court. Danner is a Democrat.
Mary J. Greenwood, 55, of Menlo Park, has served as the chief public defender in the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office since 2005. She was an assistant public defender and supervising attorney in the Santa Clara County Alternative Public Defender’s Office from 2002 to 2005. Greenwood was an attorney at Coblentz Patch Duffy and Bass LLP in 2001. She served in multiple positions in the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office from 1988 to 2001, including deputy public defender and assistant public defender. She was an associate attorney at the Boccardo Law Firm in 1987. From 1982 to 1986, she served as deputy public defender in the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office. Greenwood earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Grinnell College. She fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Alfonso Fernandez. Greenwood is a Democrat.
The compensation for each position is $178,789.