Candidate for
Judge of the Superior Court; County of Santa Clara; Office 11

Bill Priest was born in Oregon, raised in Washington State, graduated from high school in Spokane, and from Washington State University in 1961.

Having enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1957, he was commissioned an ensign after Officer Candidate School, and served on active duty from 1961 to 1965. He was a department head on a destroyer in the Atlantic, including service as a Russian interpreter for boarding parties during the 1962 Cuban missile blockade. Afterward, he served as officer-in-charge of a Logistics Office, supporting the Navy's Nuclear Power Training Unit in Idaho.

Leaving active duty in 1965 to attend law school at the University of Idaho, he was employed as a county Justice Court Judge, presiding over misdemeanor criminal matters including jury trials, limited jurisdiction civil matters, and serving as Justice of the Peace and Deputy Coroner. In addition to law school and his judicial duties, he worked part-time as a professional photographer to help support his wife and four children.

After graduating from law school in 1968, he was admitted to the Idaho Bar and practiced briefly in Moscow, Idaho. Still an officer in the Naval Reserve, he returned to active duty, serving 3-1/2 years in Southeast Asia, mostly in Vietnam. He regularly served as a Navy Trial Observer, reporting to the U.S. State Department regarding observance of international law in trials of Naval personnel in the criminal courts of Vietnam, Thailand, The Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and was frequently assigned as a prosecutor in military Courts Martial.

During a brief "stateside rotation" in 1971, he won admission to the California Bar and established a practice relationship in San Jose, settling there with his family.

Returning from Vietnam in 1972, he was assigned as Regional Program Director for a Naval Reserve component headquartered at Treasure Island, and began practicing law part-time in San Jose. Upon completion of his active Navy tour in 1974, he practiced full-time, remaining in the Naval Reserve until his retirement as a Captain in 1984; concurrently, he taught Real Estate Law at San Jose City College and Evergreen Valley College until 1987. He conducted a general practice, trying cases in California and Federal Courts including criminal defense, dissolution of marriage and custody matters, personal injury, patent infringement, bankruptcy, real estate and business disputes, wrongful termination of employment, and product liability.

Active in the community, he led a campaign to amend the San Jose City Charter, establishing a Commission to set salaries for the Mayor and City Councilmembers. Appointed to the San Jose Civil Service Commission in 1981, he served as Presiding Hearing Officer for city disciplinary cases, including Police and Fire Department cases, until 1993. A founding member of the Metropolitan San Jose Kiwanis Club, he served as its President in 1975-76, was named "Kiwanian of the Year" in 1979, and Division Lieutenant Governor in 1985-86.

Priest was proactive from his first days in San Jose to gain improved status for women and minorities. He actively campaigned for the election of San Jose's first woman Mayor, and for many women and minority candidates seeking election as Judges, Councilmembers, County Supervisors, Bar Leaders, and School Board members. While serving on the Board of Trustees of the Bar Association, he promoted increased participation of women and minorities in the Bar Leadership. As a founding sponsor of the Pueblo de San Jose Kiwanis Club, he helped recruit its all-Hispanic membership, led an effort to establish a Kiwanis Club in the Vietnamese community, and sponsored the first woman Kiwanis member in his own Club. He actively campaigned for an increase in minority and women representation as Judges in our Court system, both in general and for particular nominees.

In 1995, Priest was appointed to the newly-created San Jose Campaign Finance and Ethics Board, which he chaired during three of his four years of service. Working to establish a new system of political accountability and fairness, he helped re-write San Jose's ordinances and presided over ethics and campaign-law violation hearings and investigations. He now serves as a County representative on the statewide Judicial Council sponsored Community-Focused Courts Planning Committee, which seeks to achieve long-term improvement of public service and public understanding of the Court system and its role in the community.

Elected President of the Santa Clara County Bar Association for 1999, Priest continued to lead the effort to broaden and increase legal services to the poor and disadvantaged. A founding Board Member of Community Legal Services of San Jose, the federally-funded general legal services provider for this County, he concurrently served on the Board of the Santa Clara County Bar Association Law Foundation. While serving as Bar President, he was a leader in the merger of the three largest Bay Area federally-funded legal services providers, resulting in the creation of Bay Area Legal Aid, Inc. ("BayLegal"), serving seven Bay Area Counties. BayLegal employs 65 staff with a budget of $5.3 million to provide legal services in domestic violence, economic security, health care access, and housing to low income persons. Priest currently serves as BayLegal's Vice Chairperson. In addition, starting in 1997, he helped found a "United Way" type of agency supported by the legal profession, the Silicon Valley Campaign for Legal Services, which kicks off its $2 million fundraising effort in early 2000; he serves on its Board of Directors. In 2000, he is Chair of the Bar Association's Legal Services Committee, established to help coordinate services and communication among the County's many legal service agencies.

A licensed Real Estate Broker since 1986, he teaches classes for real estate professionals, and for the California Continuing Education of the Bar. As the first Chair of the County Bar's Education Committee and a committee-member since 1975, he has been instrumental in developing one of the best continuing education programs for lawyers by a local Bar Association, in the country.

During the 1980's, Priest began to limit his legal practice to the areas of real estate and business matters. He now represents real estate brokers and agents, developers, buyers and sellers, apartment owners and developers, commercial property owners and developers, closely-held businesses, nonprofit corporations, business buyers and sellers, and employers. His practice is both transactional (he negotiates and drafts contracts, leases, merger agreements, etc.) and litigation-related (he represents parties in dispute resolution matters, including mediation, arbitration, and court trials, as well as before administrative agencies). He serves as a Court- appointed Judicial Arbitrator, and as a Judge Pro-tem in many types of cases since 1976.

With his wife, Sharon Layne, Priest is co-owner of United Commercial Brokers, a small brokerage specializing in sales of inns and boutique hotels. The couple recently sold The Hensley House Inn, a B&B which they developed in downtown San Jose starting in 1986, restoring a then-dilapidated 1886 Victorian mansion to a highly-successful urban inn. During that time, Ms. Layne served on the San Jose Historic Landmarks Commission, and the couple were co-founders of the California Association of Bed & Breakfast Inns, which Priest served as its Vice-president for Legal and Legislative Affairs. They have both been regular lecturers at innkeeping conferences all over the U.S., and until 1997 conducted regular seminars for prospective inn owners from throughout the country and the world.

In seeking the office of Superior Court Judge, Priest believes that he brings to the job a level of experience and community involvement unmatched by any other candidate. His goal is to continue his long commitment to public service in a new role, to help maintain the level of excellence for which our Courts are widely recognized, and to contribute to the improvement of efficiency and public perceptions of our Court system.