Joseph R. Grodin was an Associate Judge on the California Supreme Court and professor of labor law at Hastings College of Law. Born in Oakland, California in 1930, Grodin earned his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1951 and his law degree from Yale Law School in 1954. After earning a Ph.D. in labor law from the London School of Economics in 1959, he worked as an attorney for San Francisco law firm of Tobriner & Lazarus until 1971, when he became a full-time professor of law at UC Hastings. He was appointed Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal in 1979 and Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court in 1981 and returned to teaching full time at UC Hasting after losing his retention election in 1986. In this interview, Grodin discusses California labor law, appointment to California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Board, public perception of US judges, the death penalty, and his retention election of 1986.