L.A. Superior Court|Elects Presiding Judges

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Current Presiding Superior Court Judge David S. Wesley announced Thursday that Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl will take his job next year, with Judge Daniel J. Buckley serving alongside her as assistant presiding judge for the 2015 to 2016 term.

Kuhl and Buckley were elected this week by a unanimous vote in uncontested races.

Judge Kuhl said she was honored to have been elected as presiding judge.

"Presiding Judge David Wesley has led our court safely through the dark valley of the severe cuts necessary to balance the court budget," Kuhl wrote in an emailed statement. "With the help of assistant presiding Judge Dan Buckley, and our court executive Sherri Carter, I look forward to finding ways to ameliorate the harshest consequences of our forced budget reductions and to planning for the time when we can increase public access to the courts."

As an assistant presiding judge in the state court since 2012, Kuhl has served at the court for close to two decades. From 2003 to 2004, Kuhl was supervising judge in the civil departments of the court. She also managed the court's complex litigation program over six years, the court said in announcing the elections. During her time as judge she has also sat on the Judicial Council and a statewide advisory committee on civil jury instructions.

Buckley is in the second year of his tenure as supervising judge of the civil departments, and also manages civil cases in the Superior Court's courthouses. He has been at the court since 2002, and has previously served as Supervising Judge of the East District at the Pomona courthouse.

Both judges were litigators before they started their careers on the bench.

Kuhl was lawyer at Munger, Tolles & Olson. Later as a federal prosecutor, she argued cases at the U.S. Supreme Court. One of previous bosses is Supreme Court Judge Anthony M. Kennedy. Kuhl was a law clerk for Kennedy when he sat at the 9th Circuit court of appeals.

Buckley was once a partner at Breidenbach, Buckley, Huchting, Halm & Hamblet.

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