SF Complex Litigation Judge to Retire

 
Candice Shih
November 18, 2014

A veteran of the San Francisco Superior Court bench announced his retirement this week. The Honorable John E. Munter will retire from the Complex Litigation Department on December 31, 2015. The Honorable Mary E. Wiss, who will take over Department 305 from Judge Munter, will start on November 20, 2014.

Appointed by Governor Pete Wilson, Judge Munter began his tenure as a Superior Court judge in San Francisco in 1994. He served as a member and Presiding Judge of the Court’s Appellate Department. In 2005, he was a Pro Tem Associate Justice for the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Four.

Judge Munter has served in the Complex Litigation Department for eight years. Judge Curtis E.A. Karnow is the Department’s other judge.

Judge Wiss was appointed to the bench in 2001 by Governor Gray Davis and has served in the Criminal, Civil, Probate and Mental Health divisions of the Court. She has most recently served as the Supervising Judge of the Probate Division, a role which Judge Peter J. Busch will now be taking on.

Judge Wiss was a partner with Baum, Wiss & Blake from 1981 to 1993 and had a solo practice from 1993 to 2001. She was also a mediator with the American Arbitration Association from 1996 to 2001. Judge Wiss graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1981.

Read the Court’s press release on Judge Munter’s retirement here.

Read the Court’s press release on Judge Wiss’s appointment here.