Biography
Judge David Rosenberg was appointed in 2003 as a Judge of Superior Court, State of California, and assigned to the Yolo Superior Court. Judge Rosenberg presides in Department 7. During his tenure, Judge Rosenberg has heard the full panoply of cases which come before the Superior Court including jury trials, preliminary hearings, settlement conferences, felony and misdemeanor criminal matters, civil, family, juvenile dependency and juvenile delinquency, probate, and drug court cases. He also sits as a member of the Appellate Division of the Yolo Superior Court. In early 2008, Rosenberg was appointed to the California Joint Rules Working Group (composed of 7 Judges and 7 Court Executives to review court rules and forms).
He was born in 1946 in Muenchberg, Bavaria, Germany, the son of Polish Holocaust survivors Fay and Harry Rosenberg. In 1949 Fay and Harry and their son, David, booked passage on a boat and made their way to Ellis Island, New York City. For the next nine years the small family lived in New York City, a tiny farm in rural New Jersey and in Atlantic City and became naturalized citizens of the United States. The family then moved back to Munich, Germany, where Fay and Harry sued the German Government for reparations, and David attended Junior High School and High School. In 1964, after graduation from High School at the age of 17, David, with $200 in his pocket traveled to California to attend college. He graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from California Polytechnic State University, and was also commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Adjutant General’s Corps of the U.S. Army. There followed two years of active military service as a Special Services Officer in Frankfurt, Germany. He then attended the University of California at Davis School of Law from 1971 to 1974, graduating with his Juris Doctorate in Law. He graduated near the top of his class from law school, was selected as a member of Order of the Coif, and was an associate editor of the Law Review.
Following graduation from law school, he worked for two years as a law clerk to Chief United States District Judge Tom MacBride, in Sacramento. He then went to work in 1976 for newly elected Governor Jerry Brown, serving first as Deputy Appointments Secretary to the Governor and later as Deputy Executive Secretary and Chief of Staff to the Governor. In 1981 he entered the active practice of law as a civil litigator. In almost 20 years of active law practice, he was a partner in three law firms: Felderstein, Rosenberg & McManus; Diepenbrock, Wulff, Plant & Hannegan; and the Law Offices of David Rosenberg. At the same time that he was practicing law, he won three consecutive elections to the Davis City Council where he served for 12 years, including two terms as Mayor of Davis. During this time he served as Chairman of the California Law Revision Commission, as Chairman of the District Securities Advisory Commission, and as a Member of the California Council on Criminal Justice. He also taught a class to other lawyers for 10 years on behalf of CEB entitled “New Developments in Civil Litigation.”
In 2000, he went to work as a senior advisor to a second Governor, Gray Davis, as Director of Intergovernmental Relations. He soon added other portfolios and became Director of Community Relations as well as Director of Operations for the Governor. At the same time, the Governor appointed him to the California Lottery Commission (where he served four terms as Chairman), the Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board (where he served as presiding officer), and the California Commission on State Mandates. At the same time that he was working for the Governor, he was elected in 1996 as a member of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, representing the 4th district. He was re-elected, without opposition, in 2000.
Judge Rosenberg has received numerous awards for his community service, and has been a member of the Yolo County Bar Association, the Yolo Basin Foundation Board of Directors, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the American Legion, and Rotary, International. He served as President of the Legal Center for the Elderly and Disabled. He has been married since 1968 to Lea (Pepper) Rosenberg who is a member of the Board of Directors of the Yolo County Fair Board, and has been selected as Davis Citizen of the Year and as the Most Dedicated Community Volunteer in Davis. Lea and David have two adult children: Jason from San Francisco and Janis from West Sacramento, and one grandson, Jonathon. They have lived in Davis since 1971.
Judge Rosenberg graduated from California Judicial College in 2004. In that year he was also selected to be a member of the Criminal Law Education Committee of CJER. Additionally, in 2004 the Chief Justice of California and the Judicial Council appointed Judge Rosenberg as a member of the Civil Law and Small Claims Advisory Committee (and also serving as a member of both the Legislation Subcommittee and the Small Claims and Limited Cases Subcommittee). In 2005, Judge Rosenberg was asked to join the faculty of the California Judicial College, a training program for new Judges. In 2011, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye appointmented Judge David Rosenberg, of the Superior Court of Yolo County, as chair of the Judicial Council’s Trial Court Presiding Judges Advisory Committee for a one-year term effective September 15, 2011. Judge Rosenberg did join the faculty and teaches a course on arraignments and bail. As a service to the public, Judge Rosenberg writes a daily column for Yolo County newspapers about the system of justice entitled “Tip of the Day”.