Judge Taylor, Commissioner Byrne Slate Retirements

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Page 1

Judge Taylor, Commissioner Byrne Slate Retirements

By a MetNews Staff Writer

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Meredith Taylor and Commissioner Guillermina Byrne have scheduled retirement in the coming weeks, the MetNews has learned.

Taylor, a judge since 1985, is using accrued vacation and will leave office May 11. Byrne’s departure from the bench is scheduled for June 6.

Taylor, 66, is a longtime figure in the legal community of the San Fernando Valley, where she sat as a municipal and superior court judge after practicing law there. She was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court by then-Gov. George Deukmejian, who elevated her to the Superior Court in 1987.

Taylor is a graduate of Califorinia State University-Northridge, which she attended for eight years while raising three children, and what is now Loyola Law School. After being admitted to the State Bar in 1975, she worked for the Small Business Administration for two years before opening a solo practice in Northridge, where she focused on family law and business matters.

She was also active in legal organizations, including California Women Lawyers, the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, and the San Fernando Valley Women Lawyers Association, and served as president of CWL just prior to taking the bench. She also headed the Los Angeles chapter of the Federal Bar Association and was a director of the San Fernando Valley Legal Foundation and the Legal Assistance Foundation of the San Fernando Valley.

Byrne, 60, was elected a commissioner in 2002 after having been a referee. She was admitted to the State Bar in 1981 and is a graduate of Immaculate Heart College and Loyola Law School.

As a referee, Byrne heard dependency cases at the Edelman Children’s Court in Monterey Park before being assigned to a delinquency court at the Eastlake courthouse in Los Angeles. She is currently presiding over an arraignment court at the Metropolitan Courthouse on Hill Street.

Byrne did not return a phone call yesterday, but a court official said that she and her husband, retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J. Michael Byrne, are planning a move to Northern California.

Guillermina Byrne’s brother, Gabriel Gutierrez, retired from the Los Angeles Superior Court in 1997 and another brother, Arturo Gutierrez, is a Ventura Superior Court judge.