Patricia Guerrero (judge)
Patricia Guerrero (born 1971/1972) is an American judge serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California since March 2022. Guerrero was previously an associate justice of the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District, Division One from 2017 to 2022, a judge on the San Diego County Superior Court from 2013 to 2017 and an assistant U.S. attorney in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California from 2002 to 2003. Education. Guerrero was born in California to parents from Mexico. She was raised in the Imperial Valley, California. At  the age of 16, Guerrero worked at a grocery store. She graduated co-valedictorian. Guerrero graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 1994. She earned a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1997. Career. Guerrero performed pro bono work as a member of the Immigration Justice Project advisory board. From 2002 to 2003, Guerrero was an assistant U.S. attorney in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. She joined Latham & Watkins as an associate and was promoted to partner in 2006. Judicial service. In 2013, Guerrero became a judge on the San Diego County Superior  Court. In 2017, she became an appellate justice on the California Courts of Appeal and was the supervising judge for the family law division. In February 2022, Guerrero was nominated by California governor Gavin Newsom to replace associate justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar on the Supreme Court of California. Guerrero was approved by a 3-0 vote of the Commission on Judicial Appointments on March 22, 2022 and is the first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court of California.