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LASC Judges Kaddo, Feldstern to Retire
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Two Los Angeles Superior Court judges—James Kaddo and Daniel B. Feldstern—are about to go into retirement.
Kaddo, 90, has been on the bench for nearly 34 years. He was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1991 by Gov. George Deukmejian (now deceased) and was elected to his Superior Court post in 1988.
Prior to that, he was in private practice. Kaddo received his law degree from USC in 1963.
Eight years ago, he easily turned back an election challenge from a lawyer, Stepan Baghdassarian. A criminal defense attorney, Naser J. Khoury, who in 2016 lost a bid for election to an open seat, said two years ago that he would challenge Kaddo, but didn’t.
Next Wednesday will be Kaddo’s actual last day on the bench and he will officially retire three days later.
Feldstern’s Retirement
Feldstern’s final day on the bench will be Dec. 20 and, after using earned vacation days, he will officially retire on Feb. 19, roughly five months shy of 20 years since his judicial career began.
Now 69, he will, by that point, have turned 70.
Feldstern was appointed on July 27, 2005, by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was a deputy district attorney at the time.
In 2004, he ran unsuccessfully for a Los Angeles Superior Court open seat, being eliminated in the primary. The seat was won in the November run-off by then-Superior Court Referee Mildred Escobedo.
Classmate at Southwestern
Feldstern’s law studies took place at Southwestern. While there, he met a student in his constitutional law class named Lisa Kahn.
“It was love at first sight,” he once told a reporter.
They were wed.
After receiving his law degree in 1983, Feldstern clerked for U.S. Magistrate Judge John R. Kronenberg of the Central District of California (now deceased), and in 1984 became an associate in the Los Angeles law firm of Trope and Trope.
He joined the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in 1986. That office had a particular attraction for him: Kahn was a prosecutor there.
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