Chief Justice Appoints 8 New Judicial Council Members

Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero appointed four new voting members and four new advisory (non-voting) members to the Judicial Council.

Under the leadership of the Chief Justice and in accordance with the California Constitution, the council is responsible for ensuring the consistent, independent, impartial, and accessible administration of justice.

The following two members of the council begin their terms July 1:

• Administrative Presiding Justice Mary J. Greenwood (voting member), Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District, Division One, oversees the daily administration of her appellate district. In this role, she contributes to the statewide administration of the appellate courts on issues including budget, personnel, and facilities. Before joining the appellate bench, Justice Greenwood was the assistant supervising judge of the Family Division of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, where she chaired the Self-Represented Litigant and Community Access Committee and served on the Supervising Judges Committee. (more bio information)
   
• Chad Finke (non-voting, advisory member), court executive officer for the Superior Court of Alameda County, has 25 years of judicial branch experience, with expertise in court operations, human resources, labor relations, finance, and policy analysis. Finke spent eight years at the Judicial Council, including three years as a division director. He currently serves on the council’s Court Executives Advisory Committee and Trial Court Budget Advisory Committee, as well as the National Criminal History Improvement Project. (more bio information)

The following six members of the council begin their terms September 15:

• Judge Eric J. Wersching (voting member), Superior Court of Orange County, serves as the supervising judge of the court’s family law panel. In addition to his administrative responsibilities on the panel, he adjudicates disputes involving marital property, child custody, parenting time, domestic violence, and surrogacies. Judge Wersching is vice-chair of the Judicial Council’s Court Facilities Advisory Committee, chairs that advisory committee’s Court Standards Working Group, and is a member of Orange Superior Court’s Executive Committee, Finance Committee, Security Committee, and Supervising Judge Committee. (more bio information)
   
• Presiding Judge Rodney A. Cortez (non-voting, advisory member), Superior Court of San Bernardino County, has previously served as assistant presiding judge, supervising judge of the San Bernardino Justice Center criminal division, and supervising judge of the Joshua Tree courthouse. He also served three terms on the San Bernardino Superior Court’s appellate division and was also the court’s judicial sponsor of the pretrial release program. In addition, Judge Cortez served as chair of the court’s Criminal Committee, Security Advisory Committee, Pretrial Release Committee, Probation Committee, and Budget Committee. He has also served on the Judicial Council’s Court Security Advisory Committee. (more bio information)
   
• Judge Nicole C. Bershon (non-voting, advisory member), Superior Court of Los Angeles County, is appointed to the council as the president of the California Judges Association (CJA). She presides over a family law home court and previously oversaw a community collaborative court that focused on providing alternatives to incarceration for at-risk populations. Judge Bershon has served on the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Executive, Community Outreach, Court Security, Jury, and Temporary Judge Committees. Prior to her appointment as a judge, she served as a court commissioner for two years. (more bio information)
   
• Commissioner Benjamin J. Cassady (non-voting, advisory member), Superior Court of Sacramento County, adjudicates traffic, small claims, and unlawful detainer cases, after more than a year of presiding over Sacramento County’s Night Court calendar for in-custody arraignments and pretrial release. He is also a founding member of the Sacramento Superior Court’s Artificial Intelligence Committee. Commissioner Cassady serves on the Judicial Council’s Civil Law Curriculum Committee and previously served on the council’s Information and Technology Advisory Committee. (more bio information)
   
• Marta A. Alcumbrac (voting member), an attorney at Nemecek & Cole in Los Angeles, focuses on the defense of lawyers in complex litigation, including legal malpractice, conflict of interest, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, abuse of process, defamation, and malicious prosecution matters. She is a certified specialist in legal malpractice law and has represented lawyers and law firms in legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty cases for more 25 years. She is a member of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability, Los Angeles County Bar Association Board of Trustees, and serves on the Judicial Council’s Civil and Small Claims Advisory Committee. (more bio information)
   
• Alekxia L. Torres Stallings (voting member), an attorney and managing partner at Torres | Torres Stallings in Bakersfield, specializes in state and federal criminal defense and has served on many court-related committees at both the state and federal levels. She serves as a liaison to the Superior Court of Kern County’s Pretrial Assessment Committee. She also served as president of the Kern County Bar Association, which included membership on the bar association’s Judicial Appointment Evaluation Committee, the county’s local equivalent of the statewide Committee for Judicial Nominee Evaluation. (more bio information)

More bio information on the new Judicial Council members

The following members have been reappointed to the council effective September 15:

Justice Carol A. Corrigan, Supreme Court of California
Judge Bunmi O. Awoniyi, Superior Court of Sacramento County
Judge Charles Crompton, Superior Court of San Francisco County
Judge Ann C. Moorman, Superior Court of Mendocino County
Clerk/Executive Officer Charles Johnson, Court of Appeal, First Appellate District
Court Executive Officer Kate Bieker, Superior Court of Ventura County

Departing Council Members
Council members concluding their terms this year include Justice Joan K. Irion, Presiding Judge Patricia L. Kelly, Judge Maureen F. Hallahan, Judge Jeffrey C. Kauffman, Commissioner Ryan Davis, Court Executive Officer Darrel E. Parker, Senator Thomas J. Umberg, Attorney Rachel W. Hill, and Attorney Gretchen M. Nelson.

Judicial Council Membership
According to the state constitution, the Chief Justice chairs the Judicial Council and appoints one other Supreme Court justice, three justices from the courts of appeal, 10 trial court judges, two non-voting court administrators, and any other non-voting members as determined by the voting membership of the council. The State Bar’s governing body appoints four members, and the state senate and assembly each appoint one member.

Council Members are volunteers and do not receive additional compensation for their service. Most members serve three-year terms, and each year about a third of the membership rotates off and a new group is sworn in.