The Supreme Court’s Chief Supervising Attorney announced last week that he is retiring. Jake Dear, whose duties include heading Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye’s legal staff, has worked at the court for 40 years and has been in the top position since 2007.

In an email to the justices and court staff, Dear said that, “with [Cantil-Sakauye’s] impending departure to undertake new challenges [see here], it seems the right time for me to retire at the end of this year.” He said, “It’s been an honor and a privilege to work, for 40 years, with the justices of this court and so many dedicated and talented court colleagues from all parts of this institution,” and he commented that he’s “comforted knowing that the court and its staff will continue to set a ‘good civics’ example by tackling contentious issues in a rigorous and yet civilized manner, with fidelity to the law as the primary guide.”

Dear began his Supreme Court career as an extern to Justice Stanley Mosk in 1982 and was then a Mosk annual clerk. He later worked as a staff attorney for, in succession, Justice Joseph Grodin and Chief Justices Malcolm Lucas and Ronald George. He became the Chief Supervising Attorney while with George and stayed in that position under Cantil-Sakauye.

Dear’s email reported that he “plan[s] to remain a friend of the court.” His predecessor, Hal Cohen, stayed for some years on the court staff as a unpaid volunteer.  (See here, here, and here.)

[November 23 update: Douglas Saunders Sr. in the Daily Journal — “Chief supervising attorney at California Supreme Court to retire.” (The article mentions At The Lectern.)]