For newly appointed Sacramento Superior Court Judge Raymond M. Cadei, it was not difficult to maintain a calm and thoughtful style during his 25 years as a litigator specializing in high-stakes litigation.

The key, he said, was to not become embroiled in emotion-laden arguments with opposing lawyers and witnesses.

For instance, he recalled a deposition where the opposing attorney repeatedly interrupted his questioning of a witness with the kind of loud, table-pounding-type of objections designed to create contention rather than record an objection for the record.

"I just did not engage," he said. "If you do not get excited and you don't engage, pretty soon people realize you are not going to get into that. It's not an interpersonal contest or an ego battle."

Pretty soon, the boisterous, argumentative objections abated. The deposition proceeded with Cadei asking the questions he felt needed to be asked.

During his 25 years as a civil litigator, Cadei handled complex business lawsuits, including disputes involving intellectual property, medical malpractice, real estate, unfair competition and insurance coverage. He spent 17 years with Diepenbrock, Wulff, Plant & Hannegan, and in 1999 helped start Murphy Austin Adams Schoenfeld LLP, the largest of the firms started in the wake of the breakup of DWP&H.

It was not just that fact that they were losing a calm, thoughtful partner that caused his Murphy Austin partners to first react with disappointment when they learned they were losing Cadei to the Superior Court bench. The firm was also losing its senior business litigation partner and the head of the firm's business and commercial litigation group. But Dennis R. Murphy, one of Cadei's former partners, said any disappointment over losing an accomplished advocate was quickly replaced by the gratification that the Sacramento Superior Court was gaining the "perfect guy to become a judge."

"He has the perfect judicial temperament," Murphy said. "He is calm and deliberate and he does not overreact. He ponders everything."

Beside his unruffled, unflappable demeanor, Cadei is also "very detailed, very deliberate with strong research skills and knowledge of the law," Murphy said.

Murphy added that Cadei will be a particularly good asset to the bench because of his experience with complex, high-dollar business litigation cases with insurance coverage issues. Such expertise is particularly useful during settlement conferences but it is not possessed by a lot of judges, he said.

Cadei, appointed to the bench in May, said he enjoyed litigating complex cases, even finding the document-intensive aspect engrossing, feeling at times like Sherlock Holmes searching for that important piece of evidence in a mountain of paperwork.

"I just always liked it," he said. "It is interesting and challenging."

While he was raised in Gilroy, Cadei said it felt like a mid-western upbringing because it was a bit of a dusty, farm town in those days. His mother worked in a cannery, his father as a welder. Cadei said his youth was spent with usual teenage activities, plus some surfing and skateboarding, including building his own skateboards.

He received his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1970, during a time when UC Santa Cruz, where students did not receive letter grades, was just getting established as an idyllic and avant-guard home for hippies. Cadei received a master's degree in public administration from UCLA in 1971 and a law degree from McGeorge in 1977.

The Santa-Cruz lifestyle stills remains a part of Cadei's life with recreational activities that include windsurfing, boogie-boarding and long mountain and road bike rides. It is not unusual for him to log a 40 mile weekend road ride. Cadei, 54, is single with two grown daughters.

As he gets his bearings on the bench, Cadei will handle general trial assignments, which normally include a steady diet of criminal preliminary hearings, with an assortment of other matters thrown in. "You've got to be ready to do anything."

He said he will strive to be a judge who is "thoughtful and considerate and gives you a fair shake." Given his low-key style, Cadei will likely not be impressed with the volume of an advocate's argument.

"You're probably making a mistake if you enjoy the sound of your own voice too much," he added.