(Subscription required) After Gov. Gavin Newsom put him on the court last year, Phillips was assigned to hear a family law calendar where he is regularly confronted with challenging situations. Often, the judge said, he is faced with "two completely different versions of reality." There are unreasonable demands, parents who put their own interests above the interests of their children and parties who can't agree on the simplest facts. For a man who spent the bulk of his career in the structured world of complex civil litigation, it's "hard to grasp," Phillips said.