By Carolyn Leal
Neal A. Cabrinha of Saratoga has been appointed a Santa Clara County Municipal Court judge. He will be sworn in March 28 in San Francisco at the California Supreme Court by his former law school roommate, Supreme Court Associate Justice Ming W. Chin.
Cabrinha, appointed to the bench by Gov. Pete Wilson, will don his judicial robe on March 31. Initially, he will be a rotating judge, going where he is needed, he said.
Cabrinha has practiced law in Saratoga for 21 years. He earned both undergraduate and law degrees from the University of San Francisco. After graduating, he served for two years as a law clerk to the Honorable William T. Sweigert, U.S. district judge for Northern California.
Cabrinha, a native of Hawaii, moved to Saratoga in 1969 and joined the San Jose law firm of Popelka, Graham, Van Loucks & Allard. He joined John Mallen in Saratoga in 1976.
For the past 20 years, he has served as an arbitrator and as a settlement conference judge pro tem for the Santa Clara County Superior Court.
He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the California and Santa Clara County bar associations and the California, Santa Clara County and Santa Cruz County Trial Lawyers associations.
He is involved in a number of community organizations. He served on the advisory board of California Actor's Theater, as president of the St. Francis High School Alumni Association and on the board of directors of St. Francis High and the Eastfield Children's Center.
He has been a member of the Saratoga Rotary Club since 1976 and was president of the club in 198182.
He has also served on the board of directors of the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of Amigos de las Americas and on the board of trustees of the Montalvo Association.
In 1982, he helped organize the Saratoga National Bank and has served on the bank's board of directors. He will resign his position on the board of directors and as corporate secretary of Saratoga Bancorp.
Cabrinha and his wife, Terry, have been married for 30 years. She graduated from San Francisco College for Women and taught high school history. She earned a master's degree at San Jose State University in instructional technology and is employed as training manager of a start-up in satellite and data communications.
They have three children: Jill, a 1992 graduate of business school at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, who works as a compensation and benefits specialist in Seattle; Mark, a 1995 graduate of the architectural school at Cal Poly, who is employed by an architectural firm in Park Ridge, Ill., and Anne, a junior at UCLA, majoring in anthropology.
The Cabrinhas have a special interest in Russia. During the last six years, they have been involved in the Rotary District Youth Exchange Program, which brings students here from St. Petersburg for a year of high school study.
Cabrinha is the coordinator for a group of 10 Russian building contractors who will be in Saratoga from June 5 to July 2 in a program co-sponsored by the Saratoga Rotary Club and the Center for Citizen Initiatives in San Francisco.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 26, 1997.
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