The Marin Lawyer March 2022

Page 10

IN MEMORIAM Richard H. Breiner GARY T. RAGGHIANTI

We all lost a simply remarkable and iconic leader, lawyer, and judge when Richard H. Breiner died on February 26, 2022, at his home in San Rafael. He was 87 years old. I lost one of my oldest and dearest friends, a

man I respected, admired, and loved and with whom I enjoyed a close friendship spanning 52 years. Dick practiced law in Marin from 1965 to 1977. I met him when I was 24 and in the Marin County D.A.’s office; he was both a contract Public Defender and in private law practice in San Rafael with Robert I. Conn and Robert K. Birkie. I joined Dick in the practice in 1971, forming Conn, Breiner, Birkie & Ragghianti. We were

while riding his bicycle on Mount Tam. It was not at all certain that he would survive and

partners until 1977, when he was appointed to our Superior Court bench by then-

he was hospitalized for several months before starting rehabilitation. His fierce will to

Governor Jerry Brown. His well-earned professional reputation as a lawyer was further burnished, if not exceeded, by the reputation

live shone brightly during his long recovery and to the astonishment of many, he eventu-

he enjoyed during his two decades on our bench. He was a brilliant and successful lawyer and served with grace and distinction on the bench, displaying all the elements one

ally expressed a desire to return to the bench. Before he was permitted to return, his

wife and family asked me to see how he would react to hearing cases again in a court-

would expect in a superb trial judge: competence, fairness, good temperament, and a

room setting. Dave Freitas and I conducted a mock law and motion hearing before him while he was still in the hospital. We provid-

highly-developed and frequently-displayed sense of humor.

ed him with the pleadings from a real case and let him review them before we went to

In 1995, he suffered a catastrophic stroke

see him. There at the hospital, with doctors,

THE MARIN LAWYER An Official Publication of the Marin County Bar Association

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