A Korean-American attorney with a long history of advocacy for the Korean-American community in Los Angeles has been appointed to serve as a judge.
On July 17, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the appointment of Korean-American attorney Janet Hong to the Los Angeles County Superior Court bench. Hong will fill the vacancy left by Judge Michael Kelly, who has moved to the Superior Court of San Luis Obispo County.
Hong, who has a law firm specializing in criminal law in California and New York, is a graduate of Columbia University and earned a Juris Doctor degree from the USC Gould School of Law. After practicing law at the Legal Aid Society for four years beginning in 2002, she served as a Trial Attorney at the Los Angeles County Alternate Public Defender’s Office in 2006, where she served for eight years.
Hong then worked at the law firms of Hennig Kramer Ruiz & Singh and Cheong & Denove and began private practice in 2015. She also was an Adjunct Lecturer at UC Irvine School of Law from 2019 to 2023. Hong has been recognized as one of the top 100 women lawyers in the state by the Daily News and served as president of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles. She is also active in the K. W. Lee Center for Leadership and the Korean American Bar Association (KABA).
Newsom also appointed Madyson Chung-Lee, a Korean-American sophomore at Scripps College, to the California Youth Empowerment Commission. The commission was created by legislation passed last year to help facilitate communication between youth, the legislature, the superintendent of public instruction, and the governor on youth-related policies.
According to the governor’s office, Chung-Lee serves as the Student Representative on the Mission Fulfillment Committee on the Scripps College Board of Trustees, the Faculty and Staff Relations Chair of Scripps Associated Student Government, Senior Trainer for the California Association of Student Councils, and the Co-President of the League of Women Voters for the Claremont College Consortium. This position does not require confirmation by the State Senate.
BY NICOLE CHANG, HOONSIK WOO [chang.nicole@koreadaily.com]
