The California Judicial Mentor Program

By Judge Shama Hakim Mesiwala

Hon. Shama Hakim Mesiwala, Judge of the Sacramento County Superior Court and local chair of the California Judicial Mentor Program

Many of us who are judges struggled with even submitting our judicial applications. Are we qualified enough to apply? How does the appointments process work? And how do we approach filling out the daunting written application?

If any of you have similar questions, I encourage you to apply to become a mentee in the California Judicial Mentor Program. This statewide program has local branches throughout California and is a collaboration between the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom and the state judiciary. Our local branch includes Sacramento, Yolo, and El Dorado Superior Courts. We pair a mentee attorney who is interested in becoming a judge with a mentor judge, usually in one of those counties. The mentor judge will help demystify the judicial appointment process, answer questions about the judicial application, and may suggest new experiences to improve the mentee’s skills. The mentee’s participation in the program is confidential, so one’s employer, colleagues, and even other judicial officers are not aware of the mentee’s participation in the program.

The program was started in Los Angeles and was the vision of then Judicial Appointments Secretary Martin Jenkins. That vision has been robustly carried forward up and down our state by current Judicial Appointments Secretary Luis Céspedes. The Governor’s Office wants to expand the pool of qualified judicial applicants from diverse legal backgrounds and diverse communities. It believes that this program may help encourage prospective applicants to complete the application process, particularly those who may self-select out of the application process. There are currently branch programs in Los Angeles, our region, the Central Valley, the Bay Area, and San Diego. The goal is to include every county in the state.

So how do you become part of the California Judicial Mentor Program? You apply. Each region has slightly different requirements to qualify, and in the Sacramento region, an applicant must be a lawyer in California for least 10 years, must be in good standing with the Bar, must be committed public service, and must not have yet applied for a judicial appointment to Governor Newsom’s administration (applications to previous administrations are not disqualifying). You get the application by emailing californiajudicialmentorprogram@saccourt.ca.gov. We aim to match mentees to mentor judges who have common areas of legal practice, common affinity bar memberships, and other similar interests.

Once the mentorship match is made, the formal pairing lasts 12 months. The match is designed to help in the mentee’s career development and in preparing an application. It is not designed to give mentees an inside track. And applicants who do not participate are not disadvantaged.

If you are on the fence about applying, if you need more information about the judicial application process, or you just need to talk to a judge about whether the judiciary may be the right career path for you, I encourage you to apply to the program. And if there is a better fit geographically that may serve your needs and you can’t find that region’s California Judicial Mentor Program on the Internet, please email our branch program at the above email address. We are here to serve.