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Shubin, Smerling to Retire From L.A. Superior Court
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Dorothy L. Shubin and Terry Lee Smerling, each of whom sits in Pasadena, will be leaving the bench this month.
Shubin’s last day will be Friday though she will officially retire, after using earned vacation days, on Feb. 27. Smerling will actually depart from his post on Jan. 24, but, on the books, the date will be March 4.
Then-Gov. Gray Davis appointed Shubin to her post on Oct. 3, 2001. She was, at the time, a deputy chief of the Major Frauds Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Smerling was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1982 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. At the time of that appointment, he was an assistant legal director of the ACLU of Southern California.
He was elected to the Superior Court in 1988, defeating then-Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Allan A. Nadir, now retired.
Smerling did not respond to a request for comment on his plans and reflections, and Shubin said, only:
“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve on the Los Angeles Superior Court.”
Leaving the court on Dec. 27 was Judge Emily T. Spear, a few days before Kimberly Repecka, a former deputy public defender, on Monday took over the seat she wrested from the incumbent in last year’s primary election. Repecka’s campaign issue was that Spear had received a Sept. 6, 2023 public admonishment from the Commission on Judicial Performance.
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