Former lawmaker Tom Umberg wanted the state of California to intervene on behalf of Orange County sheriff's deputies suing to stop the county from cutting pension benefits.
But before persuading Attorney General Jerry Brown and his office to file a legal brief in the case, he endured a grilling from one lawyer in particular – Anne Gust, Brown's wife.
"She asked a half an hour of questions: 'What's the theory? Why does the state of California care about this thing? Why are you here?' " Umberg said. "She asked hard, incisive questions. She had read our brief, read the law and prepared like a judge for a hearing."
It was a window into the other half of a formidable intellectual tandem.
Gust, a former general counsel and chief administrative officer at Gap Inc. whom Brown married in 2005, is an unpaid special counsel in the state Justice Department.
Read the complete story at sacbee.com