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February 21, 2003/Adar1 19 5763, Vol. 55, No. 26
Court nominee balances devotion to law, politics
BARRY COHEN
Editor
Throughout his career, Phoenix lawyer Andrew Hurwitz has maintained a balancing act between law and politics that ultimately has led to an appointment to the Arizona Supreme Court.
Nearly 30 years ago, while clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Steward, fellow Supreme Court clerk Bartow Farr, a Phoenix native, encouraged Hurwitz to start a professional career in Phoenix.
Hurwitz, who was born in New York City and grew up in Boonton, N.J., decided to give Phoenix a try.
"I saw an opportunity to work with a small firm of six or seven people and develop the firm and a new set of clients," says Hurwitz, a graduate of Princeton University and Yale University Law School.
That firm became Osborn Maledon, where Hurwitz has been a partner for 25 years, specializing in appellate litigation and government affairs.
Six years after Hurwitz arrived in Phoenix, Gov. Bruce Babbitt asked him to serve as his chief of staff, a position Hurwitz held from 1980-1983.
After Babbitt left office, Hurwitz returned to Osborn Maledon.
At his law firm, Hurwitz says he has been able to partici- pate in government service, knowing that his professional position was secure.
"I had always thought that one of the attractions of being in Phoenix was to spend some time in government but not be a government career person," says Hurwitz.
An example was in 1988, when Gov. Rose Mofford asked Hurwitz to serve as her chief of staff in the months after Gov. Evan Mecham's impeachment but before his removal from office.
"She was the acting governor, but there was no budget for her to have a paid staff," says Hurwitz. After she was sworn in, he chose to return to Osborn Maledon.
However, Gov. Mofford appointed him to the Arizona Board of Regents, the governing board of the state's universities, from 1988-1996.
Hurwitz has also served a number of civic associations, including the Arizona State University Research Park and the City of Phoenix Street Environment Committee.
After Janet Napolitano was declared governor-elect in 2002, she asked Hurwitz to be the co-chairman of her transition team.
This was not his first contact with Napolitano.
In Ring vs. Arizona, a case reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002, they were on opposing sides.
Hurwitz returned to the court to argue that it is unconstitutional for a judge - not a jury - to sentence a convicted murderer to death.
"Before the argument, I said (to Napolitano), 'I'll buy you a drink afterwards,' and she said, 'No, no, I'll buy you dinner,' " notes Hurwitz.
The Supreme Court ultimately agreed with Hurwitz's argument and against Napolitano.
Months later, after Napolitano became Arizona state governor, she appointed Hurwitz as an Arizona Supreme Court Justice, to replace Stanley Feldman after he retired.
The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for March 17.
In his new role, Hurwitz says he is looking forward to the amount of time he will be able to apply to judging cases.
"One of the things you miss in private practice is the ability to think carefully and take the time to get things completely right," he explains. "I've always felt like, if I had a week with nothing else to do but think about this particular case, I might be able to solve it better."
More than 30 years ago, when Hurwitz began his first year at Princeton University, he had no intention of becoming a lawyer, let alone a state Supreme Court justice.
"Like every other Jewish kid in my generation, I went to college with my parents saying, 'You ought to become a doctor,' " says Hurwitz.
After a year of science classes, Hurwitz says he realized he did not have a passion for medicine.
Then he took a consti-tutional law course.
"I fell in love with reading the decisions and trying to analyze them and decided that being a lawyer was what I really wanted to do," he recalls.
At Princeton, Hurwitz met Sally Koons. They married after Hurwitz graduated from Princeton. Sally was a sophomore but decided to interrupt her formal education to raise a family, says Hurwitz. Andrew and Sally have been married for almost 35 years. They have three children, Jonathan, James and Sarah.
In 1980, Sally decided to go back to school, says Hurwitz. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees and then in 2000, earned a doctorate.
"She is now the most educated person in the family," he says.
When asked if he has aspirations beyond the state Supreme Court - such as serving on the U.S. Supreme Court - Hurwitz smiles.
"Everybody who is on the U.S. Supreme Court was struck by lightning," he says. No one can put together a career plan to be appointed there, he explains.
"For a 55-year-old state court judge in Arizona to say he has aspirations (to reach the U.S. Supreme Court) first of all would be nuts and second, it's just not true," says Hurwitz.
He describes becoming a state Supreme Court justice as difficult enough. "Part of the challenge is to see how well I can adapt myself to this new undertaking," he says. "I think it's going to be quite challenging."
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