Cal Athletics celebrates Black History Month with a series of features that recognize the accomplishments of our African-American student-athletes, coaches and staff.
By Jonathan Okanes, Cal Athletic Communications
SAN FRANCISCO – Maybe it’s because of her determination, her feistiness, or her intelligence. Whatever the reason, Monica Wiley has a way of making history.
In 1992, the former point guard helped Cal beat No. 2 Stanford, the highest-ranked opponent the program has ever beaten. She was a three-time Pac-10 All-Academic selection and helped the Bears to two NCAA Tournament appearances.
Fast forward 17 years and Wiley made an even bigger impact on society. After a 14-year career as a Bay Area attorney, Wiley became just the second African-American woman to become a San Francisco Superior Court judge when she was appointed to the bench by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009.
“I am not a bit surprised at all of her success,” said Mary Brown, Wiley’s coach at San Joaquin Memorial High School in Fresno. “Monica is an exceptional young lady. She’s always been highly motivated and smart as a whip. She’s a leader who always did her very best at whatever she did.”
As a child, Wiley had designs on becoming a psychiatrist or veterinarian. But her mother Shirley, who also had Wiley’s older sister, Nichole, not so gently encouraged her daughters to become doctors and lawyers. Indeed, Nicole practices internal medicine in Fresno.
And why didn’t Monica become a doctor as well?
“Trigonometry,” she said.
By the time she was running up and down the floor at Harmon Gym, Wiley had sold herself on becoming a lawyer. After graduating from Cal, she attended law school at Howard in Washington, D.C.
Her first job in law came as a deputy city attorney for the San Francisco City Attorney’s office. It was there that the idea of being a lawyer became much more than something her mother urged her to do as a child.
“When you’re litigating, it’s the most adversarial job I think you can have,” Wiley said. “Being competitive and having been involved in athletics since I was 6 years old, that played rather nicely into my personality. It wasn’t really that I started litigating that I kind of realized it was a perfect career for me. You have to fight.”
Apparently, she fought well enough to make an impression on the local bench. Between her work with the City Attorney’s office and three years with a private firm, Wiley had tried 27 trials, most of which took place in the Bay Area. San Francisco judge David Ballati encouraged her to apply to the bench.
“I hadn’t really thought about it up until that point,” Wiley said. “I was young and didn’t know if my experiences with different areas of the law would be sufficient to be a judge at that point. I went into it with absolutely no expectations that it would happen quickly, or happen at all. I was pleasantly surprised when it did.”
Wiley handles family law, presiding over cases involving dissolution proceedings, motions for custody and visitation and domestic violence restraining orders, among other things. And now that she is a judge, she has had to find other ways to satisfy her competitive appetite.
“You’re now the neutral referee,” Wiley said. “You’re no longer part of the process; you’re responsible for the process. When you start thinking about the process, you really have a much more important role in ensuring that justice is accomplished then you would if you were just simply advocating one side.”
Wiley has recouped some of the competition lost when she stopped litigating by coaching. About six years ago, a friend asked her to fill in as a coach for her San Francisco Bay Area Pro-Am summer team. She’s been coaching every summer since, including former Cal players such as Ashley Walker and Natasha Vital as well as current players like Brittany Boyd, Courtney Range, Brittany Shine and KC Waters.
Wiley also said she was still playing basketball recreationally once a week until about a year ago.
“I still have some competitive outlet,” Wiley said. “Then I realized I was spending more and more time recovering from my once-a-week playing. I wanted to prove that I could still do it. When I go to games nowadays, I really realize there is no way, even giving me back my 18-year old body and endurance, I could be on the court with these girls.”
Wiley is fully aware that there had been only one other female African-American judge appointed to the San Francisco bench before she assumed the role in 2009. She says appointments like hers are significant because it helps the courtroom better reflect the community.
“ I certainly feel a sense of responsibility as a result,” Wiley said. “It’s still slightly unbelievable that there have been only two African-American women appointed by a governor in the state of California. It is my fervent hope that we don’t have to wait another three or four years until another one is appointed.
“It’s difficult to encapsulate really how important it is. When litigants come in, regardless of whether or not I’m going to give them the same exact order as one of my other colleagues, I think they see me and there is a connection. It’s important to reflect the community you are serving.”
Wiley is a season-ticket holder for Cal women’s basketball games and went to New Orleans when the team advanced to the Final Four in 2013. As far as her career path goes, she considers herself lucky and fortunate to have found a career that suits her personality and hasn’t ruled out a return to litigating someday.
“We are very proud of her,” said Wiley’s father, Paul. “Now that she’s a judge, she doesn’t have the choice to do exactly what she wants and sometimes has assignments that might not get her competitive juices flowing. She’s learned to be patient. She’s done well.”
