Christopher Cottle

Christopher Clarke Cottle (born May 18, 1940) is an American lawyer and jurist, who served as the Presiding Justice of the California Sixth District Court of Appeal from 1993 to 2001, Associate Justice of that court from 1988 to 1993, and District Attorney of Santa Cruz County from 1975 to 1977. Cottle holds the unusual status of having been appointed to judgeships by both Democratic and Republican governors. He is also a former captain of the Stanford University football team.

Education and football

Born in Los Angeles, Cottle grew up in nearby Inglewood, where he attended Andrew Bennett Elementary School and Morningside High School. After Cottle was placed in foster care at the age of 14, his foster parents encouraged his athleticism, and he became a three-sport athlete at Morningside, playing on the school's baseball, basketball, and football teams. He was also student body president and served as the president of the California Association of Student Body Presidents.

Cottle entered the University of California, Berkeley in 1958, but after attending for one day, he realized the school was a poor fit and transferred to Stanford University in time to start the fall quarter, as Fall Semester at Berkeley started one month before Fall Quarter at Stanford. After his transfer was approved but before classes began, he worked for the construction company building Stanford Hospital. Awarded a football scholarship, Cottle was a linebacker and center. A three-year letterman, he eventually became captain of the Stanford football team that defeated Cottle's former school (Cal) in the 1961 Big Game. (Eleven years later, the national Boys Clubs of America would change its name to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.)

In 1988, the California Sixth District Court of Appeal expanded from three justices to six justices, so Republican governor George Deukmejian appointed Cottle one of the three new Associate Justices. In 1999, a case came before the Sixth District Court of Appeal regarding a San Jose law mandating the city's government find minority-owned and women-owned firms for city contracts, and Cottle ruled that the San Jose law was unconstitutional because it violated Proposition 209.

Cottle retired from the court in 2001 and has become a private mediator and arbitrator.