Full Biography for Paula W. Schlichter

Judge Paula Wagner Schlichter was appointed to the San Mateo County Municipal Court in January of 1991 after fifteen years as a prosecutor and attorney in private practice in San Mateo County. Since her appointment and re-election without opposition in 1992, Judge Schlichter has handled a wide array of cases including felony and misdemeanor jury trials, felony preliminary hearings and Municipal and Superior Court civil trials.

During her two years as Civil Supervising Judge of the Municipal Court, Judge Schlichter heard civil law and motion calendars as well as civil case settlement conferences. At the same time, she demonstrated her administrative skills by directing the civil branch during the years of high case volume following the implementation of trial court delay reduction.

While Judge Schlichter was supervising the civil branch of the Municipal Court, she significantly increased the number of women attorneys selected by the courts to act as temporary judges. For her service to women lawyers as a judge, as chair of the San Mateo County Women Lawyers and as a board member of California Women Lawyers, Judge Schlichter received the Elinor Falvey award presented by the San Mateo County Bar Association.

Three years ago, Judge Schlichter was instrumental in negotiating an agreement with the Superior Court consolidating the workload of Municipal and Superior Courts, streamlining court operations, increasing the courts' efficiency and saving tax dollars. During the first year of this program, Judge Schlichter supervised the Superior and Municipal Court Judges of the Northern Branch, the first arm of the court to completely integrate its functions. Since the inception of court coordination, she has served as a member of the joint group selected by the two courts to oversee court coordination. Judge Schlichter was a moving force in the creation and implementation of the courts' technology plan bringing state of the art computerization into the courtroom.

Judge Schlichter holds Batchelor and Master's degrees from the Pennsylvania State University. Her J.D. was obtained at San Mateo Law School, an institution which she attended during the evenings for four years while spending her days as mother to her two sons, now adults. She passed the bar examination immediately after her graduation and was admitted to practice in 1976.

While working as a prosecutor and while privately practicing law, Judge Schlichter taught business law and real estate law at College of San Mateo and Constitutional and Administrative Law in the graduate program at College of Notre Dame.

Judge Schlichter has served on the Board of Directors of the San Mateo County Bar Association, and has chaired their Women Lawyers' Section, Criminal Law Committee and Private Defender Committee.

She is a life member of California Women Lawyers and a member of the California Judges Association, the American Judges Association, the National Association of Women Judges, the California-Nevada Chapter of the National Association of Women Judges and the California Elected Women's Association for Education and Research.