Frank A. McGuire was the 26th Clerk of the California Supreme Court. 

He was personally selected by the Chief Justice and associate justices for the role, in which he served from 2012 to 2016. As Clerk, Frank was the chief administrator and executive officer of the Supreme Court. He worked closely with all the justices on numerous mission-critical aspects of the Court’s business, from overseeing the Court’s oral argument sessions to improving review procedures. He was also a Supreme Court liaison to the Administrative Presiding Justices of all six districts of the California Courts of Appeal. Frank came to the position of Clerk having previously worked as a Supreme Court chambers attorney, where he helped draft opinions, evaluate drafts circulated by other chambers, and reach appropriate dispositions for writ petitions and petitions for review.

Before that, he served for nearly a decade as Managing Attorney of the California Court of Appeal’s First District. 

As managing attorney, Frank supervised the work of court research attorneys, provided legal counsel to the court’s twenty justices on issues of both substance and procedure, and oversaw revisions to the court’s local rules and internal practices. Before his appointment to managing attorney, Frank worked as a research attorney for two different First District justices, and he also spent several years as a writs attorney for the court.

These unique experiences give Frank extraordinarily deep insight into California’s judicial branch.

Over the course of his 25-year career at the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, Frank worked with dozens of appellate justices, analyzed thousands of appellate briefs, writ petitions, and motions, attended hundreds of oral arguments, and helped draft opinions and dispositive orders in virtually every substantive area of the law, both civil and criminal. Many of these matters addressed issues of first impression.

He has also been appointed to influential committees alongside jurists throughout the state.

During his tenure as Supreme Court Clerk, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye appointed Frank as an Advisory Member of the Judicial Council of California, where he worked with trial judges and appellate justices from around the state. The Chief Justice also appointed him to numerous council subcommittees, including the Appellate Advisory Committee and its Legislative and Joint Appellate Technology Sub-Committees, the Appellate E-Filing Steering Committee, and the Appellate Court Security Committee.

Frank graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif.

While in law school, he was co-president of its moot court board. After law school, he clerked for Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He also practiced at the firms of Morrison & Foerster LLP and Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May (now Reed Smith LLP). Frank earned his undergraduate degree with distinction from Stanford University, where he double-majored in English and Industrial Engineering and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi, a national engineering honors society.

Clerkships

Law School

Stanford Law School

• With distinction
• Order of the Coif
• Co-President, Marion Rice Kirkwood Moot Court Board

Awards

Outstanding Service Award California Supreme Court

Dedicated Service Award California Court of Appeal, First District

Special Recognition Beverly Hills Bar Association

Bar Admissions

California

U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit