Past Associates Praise New Commissioner : Courts: David W. Long is described as patient and thorough. Some wonder if the assembly-line nature of the job he steps into will change that.

The atmosphere in the Simi Valley Courthouse will change, lawyers predict, when Ventura attorney David W. Long dons his black robe on Nov. 1 for the first time and takes the bench.

Ventura County’s judges appointed Long to replace retiring Commissioner John V. Paventi, who ranked lowest in a bar association poll of the county’s 26 judges last year and whom one lawyer called “frightening.”

While seen as well-versed in the law, Paventi was the target of complaints by many, including some lawyers who saw him as temperamental, abrupt and sometimes capricious.

By contrast, colleagues say Long is a peacemaker whose patient objectivity and experience as a volunteer arbitrator will make him an excellent judge.

“This is a man who’s sensitive to the needs of the public and also would be a strong applier of the law,” said Westlake attorney James Armstrong, who has argued civil lawsuits against Long.

“I think of him as the Will Rogers of the legal world--just very likable, sort of philosophical about people and very genuine.”

But Long will be walking away from a lucrative civil practice and into a high-volume, low-profile courtroom with an annual $84,150 salary.

There, Paventi often has heard 90 cases per morning, mostly small-claims disputes between people without lawyers, motorists trying to duck traffic tickets and parents in custody fights.

The format leaves little room for any judge to usher legal neophytes patiently through nuances of the law, said Russell Takasugi, president of the East Ventura County Bar Assn.

And it remains to be seen whether Long’s reputation for patience and thoroughness will find room in the rush or stand up to the pressure, he said.

“When you’ve got a big caseload, you’ve got to be able to administrate and work through that caseload,” Takasugi said. “You should always be able to afford the same degree of tolerance and patience, (but) you may not be able to be as sympathetic to parties without counsel.”

However, Takasugi added: “I’ve heard opinions from the local lawyers that they feel that Dave Long’s presence will demonstrate greater tolerance by the bench, an overall improved judicial demeanor.”

Long admits he does not know exactly what the job will bring.

“It’s a sausage-grinding business, to some extent,” said Long, a compact, genial man with a ready smile and a muscular handshake.

“I got a note from Ken Yegan, who is now a justice in the Appeals Court, saying congratulations, and he sent me a copy of a judges’ manual,” Long said last week. “And the note with it said, ‘Don’t lose sight of the trivial,’ because that’s what judges do. What they do, it doesn’t affect the cosmos a whole lot.”

He cannot say for sure why he has always wanted to be a judge.

“I don’t know why, but I could always see myself in that role,” he said. “It’s almost like I’ve been in training for it all my life. It’s something I think I can do well.”

But Long has a ready description of his love for law, which has taken him from paralegal to court commissioner in the space of 10 years:

“I’ve always wanted to be in a courtroom,” he said. “Maybe it was the drama of it, maybe it was the challenge of it. The bowels are looser, the stomach grinds, you don’t sleep a lot. Your client’s claim rests to some extent on your skill and how well you perform your craft.”

The 52-year-old ex-Marine was born in Baltimore, the son of a radar technician and his wife. A series of job transfers by the elder Long bounced the family through a variety of locales, including Oklahoma and the Dominican Republic.

The family finally settled in Ventura in the late 1950s, where Long graduated from Ventura High in 1959. He enlisted in the Marines, serving peacetime duty at Port Hueneme and Camp Pendleton and later entered the Marine Corps reserves.

Since high school, he had wanted to become a private detective. In his first job, a Ventura gumshoe put him to work diagraming accident scenes and taking pictures of crashed cars.

“I was the office gofer,” he recalls.

That job led to more work as a claims adjuster--16 years in all, before a desire to practice law propelled him to the doors of the Ventura law firm that one day would make him a partner--Benton, Orr, Duval & Buckingham.

“My first impression of him was before I met him,” said senior partner James T. Sherren. “He prepared some reports of an investigation in a medical malpractice case for an insurance carrier we were doing work for, and I was very impressed with his work . . .. It was very thorough.”

After seven years there, Long enrolled in the Ventura College of Law. He had never earned a bachelor’s degree--no time for undergraduate studies in addition to his job, wife and three kids, he said--but he earned his law doctorate cum laude in 1983.

From 1983, Long practiced civil law, defending clients against medical malpractice, personal injury and insurance liability lawsuits.

In 1989 he returned to Benton, Ore., where he tried insurance and malpractice defense cases, eventually becoming a partner.

Long is only the third graduate of the Ventura College of Law to win a judicial post, following former Merced County Judge Frank Dougherty and Ventura County Municipal Judge Edward Brodie.

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