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SACRAMENTO (June 4, 2026): Los Angeles Superior Court Nicole Bershon has been named 2026-2027 President of the California Judges Association (CJA). Bershon was elected President during the CJA Executive Board Meeting on April 30 in Indian Wells and will begin her one-year term on October 25, 2026.
Judge Tania Vallejo (Orange) and Judge Laura Walton (Los Angeles), were elected to serve as CJA Vice Presidents for 2026-27, and San Francisco Superior Court Judge Brian Ferrall was elected Secretary/Treasurer. All officers will be sworn in to office at CJA’s Annual Meeting this fall in San Diego.
Appointed to the bench in 2013, Judge Nicole Bershon currently oversees a family law home court. She joined the family law bench after serving as a pro tem justice on the Second Division Court of Appeal, where she authored 30 opinions, including five published decisions. Prior to that, she oversaw a collaborative court, providing alternatives to incarceration for veterans, the mentally ill, and those suffering from addiction.
Her previous assignments have included misdemeanor and felony trials, and preliminary hearings, as well as serving as the Site Judge for the Inglewood Courthouse. Before becoming a judge, she served as a court commissioner.
After law school, Judge Bershon entered private practice with Stutman, Treister & Glatt, and, later, with Irell & Manella. She then spent six years with the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, handling both civil and criminal matters. Before joining the bench, Judge Bershon spent almost ten years with the Office of the Inspector General for the LAPD, first as an Assistant Inspector General, and later as Inspector General.
Judge Bershon is a founding member of California Women Judges, a former President of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles and has served on the boards of California Women Lawyers and the Los Angeles County Bar Association. She is a Past President of the UCLA Law Alumni Association.
Judge Bershon is a graduate of Princeton University and the UCLA School of Law, where she helped start the UCLA Women’s Law Journal. She has taught at USC’s Gould School of Law and at the University of California, Irvine School of Law.
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