Governor appoints 4th District justice, 12 county judges

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday nominated the first Asian-American woman to serve on the 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego.

Judge Truc T. Do was the first Vietnamese-American to sit on the San Diego County Superior Court. She was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018 and presides over a family law calendar.

"I am deeply honored by Governor Newsom's nomination and look forward to the opportunity to serve the people of California as an appellate justice," Do said in a statement.

Before her judicial appointment, the Stanford Law graduate was a partner at Jones Day in San Diego. She is also a former partner at Munger, Tolles, & Olson LLP in Los Angeles and was a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County.

"This historic nomination brings the state closer to our goal of representing the diversity of California's vibrant communities at every level of state government. I am confident that Judge Do will be an exemplary addition to the Fourth District Court of Appeal," Newsom said in a statement.

Justice Stephen K. Tamura, of Orange County, was the first Asian American Justice to serve on the 4th District Court of Appeal. He was appointed in 1966 by Gov. Pat Brown.

If confirmed, Do would sit in Division One of the 4th District and would fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Gilbert Nares.

Newsom also named 12 new judges on Tuesday to superior courts in Alameda, Kern, San Diego and Tulare counties.

In Alameda County, Newsom appointed Sharon L. Djemal, Keith Kern Fong and David A. Pereda.

Djemal has been program director for the Consumer Justice Clinic at East Bay Community Law Center since 2014. Prior to serving as program director, she was supervising attorney at the clinic from 2000 to 2014. Djemal graduated from Columbia Law School. She fills the vacancy created after the retirement of Judge Wynne S. Carvill.

Fong has been a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of the Northern District of California since 2009. He clerked for Armstrong on various occasions including from 2001 to 2002, from 1993 to 1998 and in 1992. He also practiced at Kerr & Wagstaffe LLP as senior counsel and was general counsel and chief administrative officer at Discovery Foods. A graduate of UC Davis School of Law, Fong fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Ronni B. MacLauren.

Pereda has been special counsel in the Oakland city attorney's office since 2018. He is a former federal prosecutor in the Northern District of California and was a deputy city attorney in Oakland from 2013 to 2016. Pereda graduated from UC Hastings College of the Law. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Jon R. Rolefson.

In Kern County, the governor's appointments are Wendy L. Avila, Bernard C. Barmann and Jason W. Webster.

Avila is the first Latina to be appointed to the Kern County Superior Court. She has served as senior assistant inspector general since 2017. She was an adjunct lecturer at California State University, Bakersfield and served as deputy district attorney in Kern County from 1999 to 2017. She graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law and succeeds Judge Steven M. Katz, who retired.

Barmann has practiced at Kuhs & Parker since 2011, most recently as a partner. He is a former counsel at O'Melveny & Myers LLP and partner at Hirschmann & Barmann LLP. A graduate of Columbia Law School, Barmann fills a position created in September 2019.

Webster has served as commissioner of the Kern County Superior Court since 2017. He was a deputy district attorney from 2008 to 2017. He is also a former deputy district attorney in Tulare County. He graduated from Baylor University Law School and, like Barmann, fills a position that was created in September 2019.

The governor's five San Diego County appointments are Anthony J. Campagna, Jose Scher Castillo, Jinsook Ohta, Victor N. Pippins Jr. and Victor M. Torres.

Campagna has served as a county prosecutor since 1999. He has been division chief of the South Bay Branch of the San Diego County district attorney's office since 2018 and is a graduate of the University of San Diego School of Law. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Gale E. Kaneshiro.

Castillo has served as a federal prosecutor in San Diego since 2010. He previously was a staff attorney at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and was an adjunct professor at UC Hastings College of the Law. He graduated from UC Davis School of Law and fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge David B. Oberholtzer.

Ohta has served in the California Department of Justice, since 2011, most recently as a supervising deputy attorney general. She was a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz in San Diego from 2007 to 2008 and from 2001 to 2002. Ohta was a visiting assistant professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law from 2006 to 2007. The New York University School of Law graduate fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Lantz Lewis.

Pippins has been a sole practitioner in San Diego since 2018. He was an associate at Higgs Fletcher and Mack LLP from 2011 to 2018 and a trial attorney at Federal Defenders of San Diego Inc. from 2007 to 2011. Pippins graduated from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Adrienne A. Orfield.

Torres has served as a commissioner of the San Diego County Superior Court since 2018. He was a sole practitioner from 1991 to 2018 and a trial lawyer and intern at Federal Defenders of San Diego Inc. from1988 to 1991. Torres graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Stephanie Sontag.

Newsom made one appointment to the Tulare County Superior Court, Ricky Tripp of Visalia.

Tripp has been a commissioner of the Tulare County Superior Court since 2019. He is a former supervising deputy district attorney of Tulare County and was previously in private practice. From 2006 to 2002, he practiced at the Law Office of Nelson, Rozier and Bettencourt, The Law Office of Sawl and Netzer and The Law Office of John A. Barker and Associates. He is a graduate of the San Joaquin College of Law and also fills a position created in September 2019.