Attorney Sanford “Sandy” Svetcov, a partner in the San Francisco office of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, will be honored next month at the 2012 Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference in Hawaii.
Mr. Svetcov has been selected to receive the 2012 John Frank Award, recognizing an outstanding lawyer practicing in the federal courts of the western states. The award will be presented August 16, 2012, during the closing session of the Conference, which is attended by several hundred members of the federal bench and bar. Accepting the award on behalf of Mr. Svetcov, who is battling cancer, will be his partner, Suzi Alexander.
Mr. Svetcov is a renowned appellate lawyer who has briefed and argued more than 300 cases in state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. He has practiced law for 47 years and is considered to be the dean of appellate lawyers appearing before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He is also well known for volunteer work on behalf of the court, including recruiting lawyers from the Northern District of California to participate in the Ninth Circuit Pro Bono Program.
Mr. Svetcov began his legal career in government service. He worked as deputy legislative counsel to the California Legislature, from 1965 to 1966, then served as a legal officer in the Navy from 1966 to 1969. After completing military service, he served as a deputy attorney general for the State of California from 1969 to 1977. In 1978, Mr. Svetcov joined the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. He served as chief assistant for appellate matters from 1978 to 1981; as the attorney-in-charge of the office’s Organized Crime Strike Force from 1981 to 1984; and as chief of the appellate section from 1984 to 1989.
Mr. Svetcov has been in private practice since 1989. He was a partner in the law firm of Landels Ripley & Diamond LLP, until 2000, when he joined Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP. In 1999 and 2002, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist appointed Mr. Svetcov to three-year terms on the Federal Appellate Rules Advisory Committee. He is also an ex-officio member of the Ninth Circuit Advisory Committee on Rules and Internal Operating Procedures. His other memberships and service commitments to the legal profession include: American Academy of Appellate Lawyers; the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers; the Bar Association of San Francisco (Appellate Courts Section); the American Bar Association (Appellate Judges Conference) Committee on Appellate Practice; and the Northern California Chapter of the Federal Bar Association (and the FBA’s Federal Litigation Section).
Mr. Svetcov has been active as a teacher and lecturer in continuing legal education programs, including the Ninth Circuit Federal Bar Association Appellate Practice Seminar. He also served as an adjunct professor at Hastings College of the Law and an instructor in appellate advocacy at the United States Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute (1980-1989).
Raised in Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Svetcov earned his B.A. in 1961 from Brooklyn College, graduating cum laude, and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, in 1964.