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Weingart, Viramontes Nominated to Seats on Second District Court of Appeal
Three Named to Los Angeles Superior Court
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday nominated two Los Angeles Superior Court judges—Gregory Weingart and Victor Viramontes—to serve on the Court of Appeal for this district and appointed three persons to judgeships on the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Weingart, 56, will, if confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, replace Justice Jeffrey Johnson on Div. One. Johnson was removed by the Commission on Judicial Performance.
Viramontes, 49, will take the Div. Eight seat previously held by Justice Maria E. Stratton, if he’s confirmed. Stratton is now the division’s presiding justice.
Weingart’s law degree is from Harvard and Viramonte’s is from Yale. Both were appointed to the Superior Court by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2017.
At that time, Weingart was a partner at Munger, Tolles and Olson LLP. He joined the firm in 1992 after serving as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.
Viramontes was national senior counsel at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 2010-17 and was a staff attorney there from 2000-05. He was senior trial attorney at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 2008-10, was a trial attorney there from 2005-08, and was an associate at Heller Ehrman White and McAuliffe from 2000-01.
The commission will be comprised of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Rob Bonta and the district’s senior Court of Appeal presiding justice, Arthur Gilbert of Div. Six.
Los Angeles Superior Court judgeships were awarded to private practitioner Lauren Lofton, 40, Cathy Ostiller, 51, and Adrian Gidaya Roxas, 43. Lofton has been an attorney at Yoka & Smith LLP since 2011 and was a member of the firm of Bonne, Bridges, Mueller, O’Keefe & Nichols from 2007-11. Her law degree is from Pepperdine University.
Ostiller has served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California since 2000 and was an associate at Sidley & Austin from 1995-99. She obtained her law degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
Roxas has been a partner at Roxas Law, APC since 2020, and was a Los Angeles deputy district attorney from 2007-20. He was an associate at the Law Office of Linda W. Lau from 2004-07. He’s a graduate of Southwestern Law School.
Lofton replaces Judge Cynthia L. Ulfig, who retired, Ostiller succeeds Judge Leslie Brown, who retired, and Roxas fills the vacancy created by the appointment of Judge Maame Frimpong to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Also nominated on Friday was First District Court of Appeal Justice Therese Stewart, 65, who, if confirmed, will move up to the post of presiding justice of Div. Two, where she has served since 2014.
She would replace J. Anthony Kline, who retired.
Newsom appointed 13 others to superior courts in the state—two in Alameda County, one in Contra Costa County, one in Madera County, two in Riverside County, two in Sacramento County, one in San Bernardino County, two in Santa Barbara County, one in Santa Cruz County, and one in Tuolumne County.
All of those nominated or appointed except two—Lofton and an appointee to the Madera Superior Court—who have no party preference.
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LAUREN LOFTON attorney |
CATHY OSTILLER attorney |
ADRIAN ROXAS attorney |
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