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Seven Appointed to Los Angeles Superior Court
By a MetNews Staff Writer
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Judicial appointees are pictured from left to right.
First row: PHU NGUYEN, SONIA DUJAN, MIKE MADOKORO, and JAMES MONTGOMERY JR.
Second row: JACOB YIM, LOUIS PARISE, and HELEN YANG. |
The Los Angeles Superior Court has seven new members, through appointment by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The selections were announced on Friday.
Phu Nguyen, court counsel for the Los Angeles Superior Court since 2017, was chosen to replace Judge Louise Suzette Clover, who retired. Nguyen, a graduate of Yale Law School, has also served as a lecturer at the UCLA School of Law since 2022, as senior counsel at Dykema Gossett PLLC from 2014-17, and, earlier in her career, as an associate at the firms of Fayer Gipson LLP, Huron Law Group PLLC, and Irell & Manella LLP.
Sonia Dujan, who has been a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner since last year, will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Margaret Oldendorf. Dujan, who earned a law degree from the University of San Francisco, previously worked as a sole practitioner.
Succeeding retired Judge Gergory Keosian is Mike Madokoro, who was a managing or co-managing partner at Bowman and Brooke LLP from 2006-24. He previously worked as an associate at Morgan, Wenzel and McNicholas and graduated from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento
James Montgomery Jr. has been appointed to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Yvette Palazuelos. A former partner at Gibbs Giden Locher Turner Senet & Wittbrodt LLP, Montgomery has served as a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner since 2023; he received his Juris Doctor degree from UCLA School of Law.
Jacob Yim, deputy-in-charge of the Real Estate Fraud Section of the White Collar Crime Division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office since 2022, succeeds Judge Carol Elswick, who retired. Yim, who previously worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, earned his degree from Southwestern University School of Law.
Another deputy with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, Louis Parise, was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Martin L. Herscovitz. Parise received a degree from the Santa Clara University School of Law; he previously worked as an associate at Ferrari, Olsen, Ottoboni, and Bebb.
Helen Yang, a partner at Squire Patton Boggs since 2016, fills the position left open by the retirement of Judge Michael Linfield. She previously worked as a deputy in the Riverside County Counsel’s Office and earned a Juris Doctor degree from Cornelll.
Nguyen, Dujan, Montgomery, and Yim are Democrats and Madokoro is a Republican. Yang and Parise are registered without a party preference.
Newsom made seven appointments to superior courts on other counties, selecting judges for Modoc, Riverside, San Diego, San Mateo, Tulare, and Ventura. Five are Democrats, one is a Republican, and two are registered with no party preference.
Also on Friday, two of Newsom’s nominees to courts of appeal were confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. That body gave approval to the selections of Nathan R. Scott, an Orange Superior Court judge since 2012, for service on Div. Three of the Fourth District and Charles A. Smiley, a judge of the Alameda Superior Court since 2012, as a member of the First District’s Div. One.
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