Two Korean-American women judges have been appointed to the courts in Los Angeles and Riverside Counties.
On March 12, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Commissioner Grace A. Kim as a Judge in the Los Angeles County Superior Court and Senior Deputy District Attorney Sophia Choi as a Judge in the Riverside County Superior Court.
Grace A. Kim, a UC Berkeley School of Law graduate, clerked for the Honorable Carolyn B. Kuhl of the Los Angeles County Superior Court (2006-2007), the Honorable Gary Allen Feess at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (2007-2008), and Arthur L. Alarcón at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (2008-2009), as per the Governor’s office.
Following her clerkships, Kim worked as a Senior Trial Attorney and Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Labor from 2009 to 2020. She then served as a Law Clerk for the Honorable Dolly M. Gee at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California from 2020 until 2022. Appointed as a commissioner at the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2022, she has now been elevated to Judge, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Allen Webster.
Sophia Choi a graduate from Southwestern Law School, was Deputy County Counsel at the Riverside County Counsel’s Office from 2007 to 2020. She then moved to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office in 2020, where she became a Senior Deputy District Attorney in 2023. Judge Choi now steps into her new role as Judge, succeeding the retired Judge John G. Evans.
BY NICOLE CHANG, JUNHAN PARK [chang.nicole@koreadaily.com]
