Armendariz named to bar court
Lucy Armendariz, a former chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader Gloria
Romero with extensive Sacramento experience, was sworn in as a State
Bar Court hearing judge last month. Armendariz, 36, was appointed to the
bar bench by the Senate Committee on Rules.
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Armendariz |
A Democrat from Los Angeles, Armendariz is a graduate of UCLA, where she received
degrees in sociology and economics, and Hastings College of Law, where she
earned her law degree in 1997.
Armendariz said she became interested in bar issues while working for the
legislature. Among others, Romero authored bills that address the unauthorized practice of
law.
“I started
learning about the court that protects the public,” she said.
Armendariz decided to apply for the judgeship because she felt the court’s
public protection responsibility dovetails with her public service career and
would allow her “to continue to serve the state of California.”
When she was 10, Armendariz’ parents were deemed unfit and she was placed
in the state’s foster care system. She “bounced around quite a
bit” at first, but stayed in the same home for her high school years
and was accepted at UCLA. After finishing law school, she worked for a year
at Heller Ehrman before heading to Sacramento to serve as legal counsel for
then-Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa. She then was appointed by Gov. Gray
Davis as ombudsman for the state’s women’s prisons, although she
also dealt with inmates of men’s prisons.
It was good preparation for the bench, she said, because she “had to
listen to all sides of a story. I had to be a good listener, a critical thinker
and figure out how to get to the heart of an issue.” After three years,
she returned to the legislature as counsel to the Assembly public safety committee
before joining Romero’s staff.
A single mother of a 7-year-old daughter, Armendariz will sit in the court
in San Francisco. She replaces Judge Joann Remke, who last year was elevated
to the review department, where she is presiding judge.
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