The Not Retiring City Attorney

By Yoshinori H. T. Himel, former Editor of Sacramento Lawyer Magazine

Photo by Sirlin Photography

Other photos courtesy of Sam Jackson

We know Samuel L. Jackson (with middle name Lloyd, unlike "that other one," Samuel Leonard Jackson) for being intense. Would psychologists call him a "Type A" personality? Self-described, he's a "Triple-A."

I first knew Sam Jackson in the 1980s, when he burst into what had been the rather sleepy board of a local nonprofit organization. Kitty Hughes and Frances Gracechild recruited him to the board of the Legal Center for the Elderly and the Disabled.

The man was a human whirlwind! Legal Center director Jon Ellison credits Jackson, as board president, with being the moving force in doubling the Legal Center's income, issuing the center's first personnel policy manual, causing it to be "well organized," increasing "significantly" the center's work for low income elderly and disabled clients, and making the center a vital part of Sacramento's safety net for seniors and disabled persons. Jackson recalls getting Regional Transit to adjust its bus schedules for Legal Center clients. All that in a single year's term!

The Legal Center is but one in an inordinately long list of Jackson's activities. Within the SCBA, those include serving on the editorial committee for this magazine's predecessor, the Docket, and, in 1989, becoming the first person of color to be the SCBA's president.

At that time, Jackson says, he simply could not say "no" to opportunities to serve the community. Since his graduation in 1977, he divided his time between wife Esther Jackson, son André, born in 1971, law practice, and his numerous voluntary activities.

That regimen tested Esther's legendary patience. Had he been in her place, he says, "I would have divorced myself."

Jackson's penchant for volunteer community service goes back to his mother, Annette Jackson, who raised him and five other sons without their father's help since Jackson was four. He recalls her advice: "if you give, it will always come back to you, so don't think about what you're getting."

Jackson's mother gave the boys Biblical names and had them sing in the church choir. To this day, Jackson sings baritone in Oak Park's Shiloh Baptist Church.

Jackson's pursuit of higher education owes much to the encouragement of his seventh-grade English teacher in racially segregated Pensacola, Florida, Mr. Gillis. Other students would put down academic achievers as "wannabe" whites. Gillis advised Jackson to disregard them because they were "laying down in the gutter" and "wallowing in self-pity."

While serving in the Air Force, Jackson was reassigned to Mather and moved to Sacramento. He graduated from City College and, in 1974, CSUS. He applied to two law schools: McGeorge and UC Davis.

Much could be made of Jackson's choice that year of McGeorge over UC Davis. To Jackson, it was simple economics. African American law graduates were doing poorly on the bar exam, but those from McGeorge were doing better than those from King Hall at that time. With a family to support, Jackson needed to succeed on his first try.

Additionally, the late Dean Gordon Schaber took a personal interest in Jackson and promised that he would not have to worry about his finances during law school. "What a positive difference this one person made in the lives of so many," Jackson said of Schaber.

While at McGeorge, Jackson took the advice of the late Carol Miller, who then headed Community Legal Services, to see Darrel Lewis about an internship at the District Attorney's Office. Jackson loved the experience so much that when he graduated in 1977 he applied to that office only.

Once there, he joined a trial team that Kathryn Canlis dubbed the "Assault Gnomes." These were known for their ability to start trial on very short notice. He remembers Canlis warning defense counsel, "settle or I'll release the Assault Gnomes on you!"

By 1979, Jackson felt it was time to learn civil practice. Because the City of Sacramento needed someone with trial experience to represent the Police Department, former Deputy DA and then Deputy City Attorney Garland Burrell recruited Jackson to his second fulltime law job. Once there, Jackson did every task a civil practitioner can do for the department. He even negotiated animal acquisition and training contracts for the department's K-9 and mounted units. He recalls Chief Jack Kearns, a client for 15 years, as the "chief of chiefs," dedicated and hard-driving but soft-spoken, "the sort of cop you'd want to encounter on the street." In a colorful figure of speech that could apply to Jackson, he said Kearns could "charm the scales off a rattler."

In 1994, during the administration of the late Mayor Joe Serna, Jr., the City Council selected Jackson to succeed namesake Jim Jackson as City Attorney. That year, Jackson created a litigation unit and took the City's litigation from 19 percent in-house to 81 percent. The in-house fraction now is 99 percent. In a zero-tolerance policy, he refused to settle nuisance suits. Besides litigation, the City Attorney's Office has units for legal advice, City Code enforcement, and Special Projects, embracing lawsuits over $500,000. The office has more than doubled from 14 lawyers in 1994 to 29 today.

How does Jackson remember Mayor Serna? "He was passionate about people. Because of his keen consensus-building and negotiating skills, he was able to get the State to put up its Cal EPA building, a great revenue source for the City with 3500 employees. The building bears his name as a testament to his negotiating skills."

What legacy has Jackson left? "I know by tangible results that I've contributed to this city. We have cleaner water. We punched through Expo Boulevard, Seventh Street and the Calvine Interchange. We worked with the state and federal governments to put up the Cal EPA building and the Federal Courthouse."

Jackson's retirement plans are as meticulously laid out as his trial and negotiation strategies. This fall, Esther and he are taking Spanish. They will use their Spanish language skills (and other languages to be added later: Italian, French, German) in teaching ballroom dancing part-time on ocean cruises.

Around his home on a hill in Diamond Springs, Jackson will be shopping for a tractor to make a pond, possibly growing wine grapes, and caring for roses. The roses "require as much time as your little ones," he says.

What advice does Jackson have for his successor as City Attorney? "Be prepared to work with a cutting-edge City Council," he says. "They look for new ways to improve the quality of life, including affordable housing." Also, "expect to work with great department heads and great members of the City Attorney's office." Expect to "help the Council shape this piece of landscape."