As an ex-Marine, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge David W. Abbott is understandably proud of his military service. But that is not the thing that impresses most to those that know him best.

"When you think about Dave, being a Marine is not the number one thing you think about," said Sacramento attorney Noel Ferris, who has known Judge Abbott since 1978, when both worked for the Freidberg Law Corporation.

"I think the biggest thing about Dave is his unique kind of compassion and empathy. He has a strong criminal background and is very fair and patient. But as a personal injury attorney, he represented individuals. When you represent individuals, there is a certain sense of urgency and finality about the case, since they usually only get their one day in court. As a judge, I don't think Dave will ever forget the individual over the big corporation."

Judge Abbott, age 53, who took the bench earlier this year after 25 years in private practice, is one of the few judicial appointments to come from the plaintiff's bar in recent years. It is a distinction, Judge Abbott notes, that probably has more to do with the fact that so few plaintiff lawyers apply (mostly for monetary considerations) rather than any institutional antipathy towards the plaintiff bar.

In his own case, Judge Abbott said the decision to leave a successful private practice boiled down to one thing: the need to do something different. "I had been involved in litigation in one form or another for virtually my entire career," Judge Abbott said. "Being an active litigator is for young attorneys, not old ones. I was ready for a change."

Judge Abbott, who, together with his wife, Susan, has three boys, ages 19 to 27, earned his law degree from the McGeorge School of Law after graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in English. Following his graduation from McGeorge in 1973, Judge Abbott spent the next four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he worked primarily as a prosecutor for the Judge Advocate's Office.

At the time of his entry into the military, Judge Abbott said, the Marine Corps was starting to withdraw from the Vietnam War. During the build up for the war, Judge Abbott said, nearly one in every three servicemen were drafted into the Marines. This meant there were a lot of undesirables in the Corps who really didn't want to be there. As a result, there was a huge crime problem when some of these people returned from the war.

"As a prosecutor, it was a great opportunity to handle major felonies at a relatively young age," Judge Abbott said. "In my first year with the Staff Judge Advocate's office, we prosecuted more courts martial at Camp Pendleton alone than the Air Force did in the entire world."

Following his four-year commitment with the Marine Corps, Judge Abbott landed a job in Sacramento with the Freidberg Law Corporation, where he handled legal and medical malpractice and other tort litigation claims. Although born and raised in Oakland, Judge Abbott was not necessarily looking to return to Northern California at the time. In fact, he had promised his wife, who suffered from terrible allergies while he was in law school, that he would not return to Sacramento in search of a job. However, when he received the offer from Ed Freidberg, the opportunity was too good to pass up. "I took the job because it was the best offer I received," Judge Abbott said. "But I always had an inclination toward tort law. When I was a Judge Advocate, I enjoyed the prosecution much more than I did the defense work. As a prosecutor, you carry the burden of proof. You create the theory of the case and develop the evidence to support it. You're the one that makes it go. I think plaintiff's work is a lot like that.

"As for returning to Sacramento, it was a kind of a good news, bad news scenario when I told Sue. But she was a pretty good sport about it."

Judge Abbott, who is an avid Cal Bears fan and enjoys reading, photography and backpacking, left the Freidberg office in 1982 to work for Gessford, Severy & Alpar. When the Gessford firm broke up a year later, Judge Abbott started his own firm with Michael Gessford, the senior partner at Gessford, Severy & Alpar, specializing in general tort litigation. He was in sole practice from 1990 to 1996 before becoming a partner in the general tort litigation firm of Abbott & Nolen until his appointment to the bench.

In addition to his law practice, Judge Abbott served as president of the Sacramento Consumer Attorneys and as a member of the Board of Directors of the McGeorge Alumni Association. He also is a member of the Milton Schwartz American Inn of Court at the University of California Davis school of law and has served on the Board of Trustees at Jesuit High School.

As for his new career as a judicial officer, Judge Abbott has somewhat modest aspirations. He says he "just wants to do a good job," so that "whether win, lose or draw, people feel like they've had a fair shot."

He also has this warning for those that think they might gain an advantage because of his background as a plaintiff attorney: "It would be a mistake to think that I am going to decide a case just because of the type of law I've practiced for the last 25 years," Judge Abbott said. "Its like the old adage, 'Don't kid a kidder.'"

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