Richard M. Mosk (May 18, 1939 – April 17, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the

California Courts of Appeal The California Courts of Appeal are the state intermediate appellate courts in the U.S. state of California. The state is geographically divided along county lines into six appellate districts.

, Second District.

Early life, education, and military service

Mosk was born in Los Angeles, California, and was the son of Helen Edna (Mitchell) and

Stanley Mosk Morey Stanley Mosk (September 4, 1912 – June 19, 2001) was an American jurist, politician, and attorney. He served as Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court for 37 years (1964–2001), the longest tenure in that court's history. ...

, a former California Attorney General and state Supreme Court Justice. He graduated from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, with great distinction and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

, cum laude. While at Stanford, he earned three athletic letters. After military service, he was a member of the staff of the

Warren Commission The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States Pr ...

(President's Commission on the Assassination of President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

) and a clerk to California Supreme Court Justice

Mathew Tobriner Mathew Oscar Tobriner (April 2, 1904 – April 7, 1982) was an American lawyer and law professor who served as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court from 1962 to 1982. Early life and education A native of San Francisco, Tobriner ...

Legal career

Mosk was a litigation partner in a large Los Angeles law firm. He was a Special Deputy Federal Public Defender, 1975-76. Mosk was the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

appointed judge on the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal when it was formed and served from 1981-1984. He was a substitute judge on that Tribunal from 1984 to 1997. In 1997, he was reappointed to that Tribunal and served until 2001, when he was appointed as an associate justice of the California Court of Appeal. Mosk was a member of the Los Angeles County-City Fire Board of Inquiry that made recommendations to deal with brush fires. He was chair of the Los Angeles County Commission on Judicial Procedures and a member of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles County Law Library, of the California Museum of Science and Industry, and of Town Hall of California. He was a member of the Stanford Athletic Board. He was also a member of the

Christopher Commission The Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, informally known as the Christopher Commission, was formed by then-mayor of Los Angeles Tom Bradley in April 1991, in the wake of the Rodney King beating. It was chaired by attorne ...

that investigated the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

(1991) and was Chairman and Co-Chairman of the Motion Picture Classification and Rating Administration that provides the parental ratings for motion pictures (1994–2000). As a lawyer, Mosk argued cases before various appellate courts, including the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

and

California Supreme Court The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...

. He sat

pro tem ''Pro tempore'' (), abbreviated ''pro tem'' or ''p.t.'', is a Latin phrase which best translates to "for the time being" in English. This phrase is often used to describe a person who acts as a ''locum tenens'' (placeholder) in the absence of ...

on the California Supreme Court. Mosk was on many domestic and international arbitration panels and was a member of a number of bar associations. He was president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Federal Bar Association and on the Council of the ABA Section of International Law and Practice. He served as a California State Bar Association examiner and as a member of the California State Bar Association Disciplinary Committee. He has lectured at

The Hague Academy of International Law The Hague Academy of International Law (french: Académie de droit international de La Haye) is a center for high-level education in both public and private international law housed in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. Courses are taugh ...

and at law schools in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and the United States. Mosk taught an undergraduate class at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. He has written articles for numerous publications. His oral history was published in California Legal History. He died on April 17, 2016, from pancreatic cancer.

Personal life

Mosk was married to Sandra (Budnitz) Mosk, an educational therapist. He had two children, Julie Morris, a psychologist, and Matthew Mosk, an Emmy award-winning television producer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosk, Richard M. 1939 births 2016 deaths Judges of the California Courts of Appeal Lawyers from Los Angeles Stanford University alumni Harvard Law School alumni The Hague Academy of International Law people Warren Commission counsel and staff 20th-century American judges 20th-century American lawyers