Gov. Brown appoints 2 Filipina judges to California Superior Court benches

Appellate attorney Audra Ibarra becomes the first Filipina to serve as a Bay Area superior court judge

After the historic 2018 midterm election in which a record number of women and people of color were elected to office across the country, the California superior courts just got a little more diverse as well.

Before he hands the governorship to Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, long-time California Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday, Dec. 7 filed for 13 Superior Court judgeships, including two Filipinas: Audra Ibarra of the Bay Area and Rohanee Zapanta of San Diego.

Audra Ibarra, a Palo Alto attorney with more than eight years of appellate experience, became the first Filipino-American woman to be appointed a superior court judge in the Bay Area when Brown appointed her to the Superior Court of Santa Clara County. (She is also the first Filipino-American ever to serve in the county’s superior court.)

The 49-year-old former assistant U.S. attorney has also been counsel at the California Appellate Law Group since 2012 as well as a sole practitioner since 2010. Previously Ibarra was the deputy chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California.

Ibarra is not officially affiliated with any political party.

Before Rohanee Zapanta was appointed to the San Diego County Superior Court, she was a deputy public defender at the county’s public defender’s office, where she had been serving since 2005. She was also an associate at the Law Offices of Ray Bulaon and Price Law Group.

Zapanta fills the vacant seat left by Judge Judith F. Haynes, who retired this year. Zapanta is a registered Democrat.

Ibarra and Zapanta are two of the 10 women (out of 13 in total) who were appointed earlier this month.

Brown also appointed the first Korean-American judge in Alameda County in Eumi K. Lee, who works as a clinical professor at UC Hastings’ College of Law. Also appointed was Joginder Dhillon who became the first Sikh judge ever appointed in Sacramento County. (Klarize Medenilla/AJPress)