Commissioner Paul Seeman is the 2009 Wilmont Sweeney Judge of the Year
Posted on: Thursday, February 26, 2009
Commissioner Paul Seeman is Wilmont
Sweeney Juvenile Court Judge of the Year or 2009. He was awarded the
honor on February 24 by the Juvenile Court Judges of California during the CJER Juvenile Law Institute
in Emeryville, California.
Commissioner Seeman’s career with the
Alameda County Juvenile Court has spanned 27 years. He has been a Juvenile
Court Commissioner for 5 years. Before that he was appointed by Judge Wilmont
Sweeney as a Referee Pro Tem and served in that capacity for 14 years.
Commissioner Seeman participated in the Alameda County Civil Court Appointed
Attorneys Program representing minors and parents for many years, and was also
on the dependency and delinquency panels in San Francisco. In addition, he has served as an
attorney with the Alameda County Counsel’s office.
As a judicial officer with the Juvenile
Court, in 2005 Commissioner Seeman was instrumental in helping to start the
first dependency drug court in Hayward, California. He was also instrumental in starting
direct calendaring for Hayward’s dependency courts. This effort
became the catalyst for starting direct calendaring in Oakland’s dependency courts. In March 2007
when all of Alameda county’s delinquency courts moved to
the new Juvenile Justice Center in San Leandro, California, Commissioner Seeman helped design a
direct calendaring model for delinquency.
Appointed by the Presiding Judge of the
Juvenile Court to chair a collaborative task force, in 2007 Commissioner Seeman
developed and implemented the first Alameda County Collaborative Juvenile
Mental Health Court (ACJC). Commissioner Seeman presides over the pilot court
that is in its second year of operation and is making a real difference in
outcomes for children in Alameda County’s delinquency system who have serious
mental and behavioral health issues. Plans are underway to integrate the model
collaborative court into each of Alameda’s delinquency departments as a way to
address the rising mental health needs of youth.
In 2008 Commissioner Seeman started two
more pilot initiatives – the 241.1 “crossover” study in collaboration with Cal
State Sacramento and the “Justice on Wheels” partnership for civil advocacy
with Bay Area Legal Services. Also, last spring he taught “Juvenile Justice in
the 21st Century” as an undergraduate course at UC Santa Cruz.
Other contributions made by
Commissioner Seeman include co-founding the Alameda County CASA program in 1984 and co-founding the
McCullum Youth Court diversion program in 1994. He is the founder of the
Juvenile Counsel Advocacy Project and co-author of the proposed Office of
Dependency Counsel legislation. Commissioner Seeman also serves as faculty for
Beyond the Bench and for the Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER)
Continuing Judicial Studies Program.
Commissioner Seeman is a member of the
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) and the
International Association of Youth and Family Court Magistrates. In 2008 he
became the Chairperson of the International Association Committee of the NCJFCJ
and also earned a certificate in Juvenile Justice Multi-System Integration from
the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University. Until December 2008 he was the
chairperson of the Alameda County Juvenile Officers Coordinating Committee,
since 2005. In 2007, Commissioner Seeman assisted Judge Gail Bereola in
establishing a monthly Juvenile Justice Center Brown Bag Education Series
designed to provide training and MCLE and education credits for judicial
officers, attorneys, social workers, probation officers and court staff. The
brown bags have been very successful and provide MCLE and education credits to
all participants.
Commissioner Seeman is a judicial
officer who demonstrates passion and zeal for providing and maximizing positive
outcomes for our young people. He is a caring individual with a strong desire
to enhance and improve the Juvenile Justice System by the development of
innovative, creative, and cutting edge programs.
Commissioner Seeman has made and continues to make extraordinary contributions to the Juvenile Justice System. Congratulations, Commissioner Seeman on an award well-earned!
