Bio

By Nancy L. Davis

Nancy L. Davis for Judge, Seat 3

Shortly after finishing law school, three fellow graduates and myself founded the pioneering organization, Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), a nonprofit, public interest law firm dedicated to achieving equal opportunity and economic justice for women and people of color. For more than two decades, we litigated seminal cases in many areas, including sexual harassment, pay equity, the employment rights of immigrant women, pregnancy discrimination, and workplace safety.

Following my tenure at ERA, I served as a pro bono judge pro tem of the San Francisco Superior Court, where I facilitated settlements largely in landlord/tenant disputes. In 2000, I began serving as a pro tem commissioner in the traffic and small claims departments of the Superior Court and was appointed to an 18-month court commissioner position in June
2001.

In addition to judicial experience, legal practice, and public policy advocacy, I've been a teacher and mentor to law students and lawyers. I have taught law at Stanford, USF, Golden Gate, and the University of Santa Clara. For several years, I was an assistant team leader with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, and I recently served as a volunteer with the Law Academy at Mission High School.

My abilities as an attorney and my commitment to civil rights have earned me the respect and recognition of my peers and colleagues. I am the recipient of the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom Legal Service Award (1996), the American Bar Association Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award (1994), the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund Legal Services Award (1994), the Boalt Hall Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award (1994), and the California Women Lawyers Fay Stender Award (1993).

I obtained my undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 1968 and my law degree from UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law in 1972.

My life partner, Superior Court Judge Donna J. Hitchens, and I are the parents of two daughters, Kate (19) and Meg (16).