Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Page 1
Bendix Under Consideration for Court of Appeal
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Helen I. Bendix is being considered for appointment to this district’s Court of Appeal, the MetNews has learned.
Bendix confirmed yesterday that her name has been sent to the Commission on Judicial Nominees but said:
“I don’t have a comment on it. Nope.”
In 1997, Bendix was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court by then-Gov. Pete Wilson. She served on the court’s Budget Committee, and was elevated to the Superior Court in 2000, by unification of the courts.
Since last year she has been supervising judge of the Mandatory Settlement Conference Courts, and in 2009 she sat as justice pro tem on this district’s Court of Appeal, Div. Eight.
Bendix was senior vice president and general counsel of KCET, Community Television of Southern California, prior to her appointment to the bench. Before that, she spent eight years as a partner with the now dissolved-Heller, Ehrman, White and McAuliffe, after serving as of counsel to Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher from 1986 until 1989.
Bendix began her legal career as a law clerk for then-Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler in 1976.
After clerking for Hufstedler, she became, in 1978, an associate with the Washington, D.C. firm now known as WilmerHale, before becoming an associate with Leva, Hawes, Symington, Martin & Oppenheimer, where she later became partner.
She has served as a law professor at UCLA and Pepperdine, teaching public international law, civil procedure, remedies, and mediation. She was also an adjunct professor of Japanese law at American University Law School in 1983.
Bendix has been a member of the American Law Institute since 2005, and the Chancery Club since 1995.
She has been on numerous Judicial Council committees, including, the Ad Hoc Committee on Court Efficiencies, Civil and Small Claims Advisory Committee, Access and Fairness Committee, Working Group on Mediator Ethics, and the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Canon 6D.
She has served as vice-chair of the Civil and Small Claims Committee and past chair of the ADR Committee.
She was president of Dispute Resolution Services in 2000, after having served as editor-in-chief for the ADR Newsletter.
Bendix has authored numerous articles, including as, “ADR: The Song of Justice” in the June 2009 issue of The Advocate. She has also co-authored “Moore’s Federal Practice on Supreme Court Practice and Procedure,” and “Moore’s Federal Practice on the Federal Rules of Evidence.”
The Southern California Mediation Association has presented Bendix with two different awards, the Cloke-Millen Award in 2009, and the association’s 2002 award for Peacemaker of the Year.
Bendix received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 1973, and her law degree from Yale Law School in 1976, the same year she was admitted to the State Bar of California.
Bendix was born and raised in New York City. She is married to U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt of the Central District of California, and is the mother of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Jessica Kronstadt.
The MetNews has previously reported that Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Brian Hoffstadt, Lee Edmon, and Sanjay Kumar; U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins; and Southwestern Law School professor Christopher Cameron are under consideration for the court. The district has four current vacancies, with two more scheduled to occur at the end of next month.
Copyright 2014, Metropolitan News Company