By Donald J. Polden, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law
The Santa Clara University School of Law has lost one of its great friends, graduate Justice Eugene M. Premo BA ’57, JD ’62. He passed away on January 25, 2021, and is mourned by the Law School and the Santa Clara County legal community after his 50 years of service on the bench. I am sharing this remembrance of Justice Premo on behalf of the School of Law and Provost Lisa Kloppenberg and Dean Anna Han.
Throughout his long and distinguished career as a lawyer and jurist, Justice Premo was an unwavering supporter of the mission and purpose of the School of Law. He was a frequently sought-out adviser to law school deans, including his law school classmate, Mary Emery JD ’63, and was honored to serve on advisory and leadership boards. And, he seldom missed marching in the annual Law School commencement honoring the newest graduates of the school.
In 2003, when I first arrived at Santa Clara Law as the Dean, Justice Premo invited me to breakfast to get acquainted. That began a 17-year friendship that involved several breakfast places in San Jose and Santa Clara (and a few golf courses in the area) and many helpful conversations. Justice Premo never volunteered his advice or his opinion, but when you asked for them, they were insightful, candid, and always right on point. He was that person in the room that, when he spoke, everyone listened.
When I asked him about his law school experiences at Santa Clara, it was clear that he was an exceptional presence at the University and the Law School both as a student and as a distinguished alumnus. He was a student leader in his undergraduate days and served as editor of the school newspaper. He enjoyed telling how he incurred the ire of the President at the time for a story he wrote, but that he was on the right side of the issue. He had great memories of law school classmates Mary Emery JD ’63 and The Honorable Leon Panetta BA ’60, JD ’63, and also vivid recollections of law faculty members at the time, several of whom didn’t impress him. Even with his occasional criticism of the school, it was unmistakable that he had a true love for Santa Clara and its law school.
Justice Premo was an encyclopedia of knowledge about the California judicial system and the Santa Clara County Bar and he was able to assist the Law School by introducing us to key leaders and getting their assistance for the school. Justice Premo leaves a clear and indelible mark on the communities that he cared about, such as the St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Los Gatos and the California judiciary. His greatest passion, however, was reserved for his family and I came to know them—grandkids and all—by name, schools they attended, jobs they held, and all of which was punctuated with his personal insights on why he loved them. He was the kind of lawyer that you could hold up to examination by law students and young lawyers, and suggest that his was a life worth emulating. He was an exceptional presence in the legal and Santa Clara Law communities and will be greatly missed.
