Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Page 3

Superior Court Judge Biderman to Retire in March

By a MetNews Staff Writer

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph S. Biderman will be retiring, a court spokesperson said yesterday.

Biderman, 57, was unavailable for comment. His official date of retirement is March 18.

He was appointed as judge in July 2003 by then-Gov. Gray Davis. Prior to his appointment, he was a Superior Court commissioner, a post he obtained under court unification in 2000 after having been a Los Angeles Municipal Court commissioner since 1994.

Prior to his court service, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., a deputy public defender in Los Angeles, and managing counsel at Honda North America. He was appointed a court commissioner six months after joining the Los Angeles office of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro.

Biderman was named Municipal Court Commissioner of the Year in 2000 by the Century City Bar Association.

He was involved in two highly-publicized cases during his time as a judge.

In 2006, Biderman rejected a request by two fraternity brothers, who appeared in the movie “Borat,” to halt the release of the DVD and remove a scene in which the men were recorded making racist and sexist comments.

In 2008, this district’s Court of Appeal threw out a $1.5 million verdict in favor of former Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Lynn Magnandonovan, who was discharged after making remarks about the judge that were alleged to be homophobic.

The attorney admitted saying to Biderman’s court clerk that the judge “would have to answer to the Creator” after Biderman took a motion to revoke an alleged child molester’s probation off calendar due to Magnandonovan’s failure to timely appear for a hearing.

Biderman testified that he understood the remarks as a “veiled reference” to his homosexuality, and that he felt “personally insulted” and “was very upset about it.” The Court of Appeal ruled that the comments were a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for the attorney’s termination and that she failed to present sufficient evidence to support an argument that the reason was pretextual.

Biderman received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, and his law degree from UCLA. He was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1981.