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I know I'll get laughed at, but of the cities with which I have any familiarity, I'd put Oakland up near the top of the list. While parts of Oakland are pretty much as bad as the reputation this is hardly true of the majority of the place and it is centrally located to all of the good things about the Bay Area without having to actually live with the people who think that San Francisco or Berkeley are evidence of God's beneficence.
The courthouse (which I presume is where you'd work) is well located for daytime dining and entertainment (not so much for evening as Oakland has not really had much success with revitalizing its downtown) and there are several nice and reasonably affordable (by local standards) neighborhoods within short driving distance. If you still want to live farther out in the suburbs it benefits from allowing you to skip the worst parts of the commute from many destinations.
As far as SF, I assume you won't be making much money and will end up commuting in from outside the city anyway, so you might as well go with Oakland.
So of the Bay Area choices, I'd rate it on top (without knowing anything about what makes a specific court better or worse for working; and knowing that the SF people will likely be appalled).
If you can handle the extremes of daylight and long winters then Anchorage is nice.
Reno is a place I like to go to gamble but I can't imagine why anybody would want to live there unless you really want proximity to good winter sports. It is boomtown that has busted. It lost the development war with Vegas and feels like it.
I saw earlier that you'd rejected Honolulu and I don't know why. Personally I found it a great place to live except for two things: I'm not a fan of tropical climate and I get island fever something awful. But otherwise I'd move back in a heartbeat.
If you're wanting something that is like Seattle but not actually in Seattle then Portland is your place. Imagine Seattle as a smaller town and you've pretty much got it.
Sacramento: Long stretches of 100+ degrees in the summer are not uncommon and it is a humid hot. That is a disqualifier for me but if not for you then it is only 80 minutes away from the best of the Bay Area, a couple hours from good skiing and is going through a boom that is bringing some culture to the area but with room for growth keeping prices somewhat down.
I haven't spent a lot of time in Medford but what I have the place felt like a suburb without any nearby city. If you're big into theater, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has its seasons in nearby Ashland. The worst winter weather on the west side of the Oregon Cascades.
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