Tuesday, August 11, 2026

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Adams Chosen as C.A. Presiding Justice Hippach Named Associate Justice

Governor Names Ford, Murphy, Park, Segura to L.A. Superior Court

By a MetNews Staff Writer

RASHIDA ADAMS

presiding justice nominee

DENISE HIPPACH

associate justice nominee

Court of Appeal Associate Justice Rashida Adams of this district’s Div. Three will be elevated to the post of presiding justice of her division, if Gov. Gavin Newsom’s nomination of her is confirmed by the three-member Commission on Judicial Appointments.

She would replace Presiding Justice Lee Edmon, who retired. Adams has been on the Court of Appeal since 2024 and was a Los Angeles Superior Court judge from 2017-23, serving before that as a Court of Appeal research attorney.

Her law degree is from Yale.

Also named to the Court of Appeal for this district, in a round of appointments late Friday is Denise Hippach, a judge of the San Luis Obispo Superior Court, If confirmed, she will succeed Teri Cody—who is now presiding justice of Div. Six—an associate justice of that Ventura-based division.

Hippach has been a trial judge since 2022. She with the Santa Barbara County Counsel’s Office from 2018-22 and the Idaho Attorney General’s Office from 2015-18.

She received her law degree from USC.

Comprising the confirmation panel will be Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and this district’s senior presiding justice, Francis Rothschild.

Named to seats on the Los Angeles Superior Court were Deputy District Attorney Justin Ford, Deputy Federal Public Defender Erin Murphy of the Central District of California, Assistant United States Attorney Wilson Park of the Central District of California, and Maricela Segura, director of the Western Region of the Federal Trade Commission.

Their respective law schools are Ford, Georgetown; Murphy, Loyola; Park, University of California College of Law, San Francisco; and Segura, USC.

Nominated to associate justice vacancies on courts of appeal posts in other districts were the governor’s legal affairs secretary, David Sapp, Third District; Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lauri Damrell, Third District; San Diego District Court Judge Marsha Amin, Fourth District’s Div. One; San Diego Superior Court Judge Lisa Rodriguez, Fourth District’s Div. One; Orange Superior Court Judge Juliet Macaulay, Fourth District’s Div. Three; and Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Frederick Chung, Sixth District.

All nominees for appellate posts and appointees to the Los Angeles Superior Court are Democrats except Damrell, who has no party preference.

Five Superior Court appointments were made in other counties. All of the appointees are Democrats except Orange Deputy District Attorney Timothy Mulhere, a Libertarian who placed on the Riverside Superior Court.