{"id":445301,"date":"2026-08-27T17:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T17:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/445301\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T17:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T17:32:09","slug":"two-uc-law-sf-alumni-join-california-superior-court-bench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/445301\/","title":{"rendered":"Two UC Law SF Alumni Join California Superior Court Bench"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-ccwcag-attachment-id=\"146131\" data-ccwcag-attachment=\"{\" disable_page_edit=\"\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-146131\" class=\"wp-image-146131\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Berg-James-Dudley-300x257.jpg\" alt=\"A composite photo of Lindsey Berg-James and William Patrick Dudley, both smiling and wearing business attire.\" width=\"400\" height=\"343\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-146131\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lindsey Berg-James \u201912 and William Patrick Dudley \u201999 bring extensive legal experience to their new roles as superior court judges in California.<\/p>\n<p>Gavin Newsom appointed two UC Law SF alumni as superior court judges.<br \/>\nLindsey Berg-James \u201912 will join the Monterey County bench; William Patrick Dudley \u201999 will join the San Diego County bench.<br \/>\nTheir appointments underscore UC Law SF\u2019s tradition of producing great legal leaders.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Two UC Law San Francisco alumni are joining the California superior court bench, one on the Central Coast and one in Southern California.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Gavin Newsom on Aug. 24 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/2026\/08\/24\/governor-newsom-announces-judicial-appointments-8-24-26\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">appointed<\/a> Lindsey Berg-James \u201912 to the Superior Court of Monterey County, where she grew up and now resides. William Patrick Dudley \u201999 was appointed to Superior Court of San Diego County, where he has practiced law for over 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>A Salinas native, Berg-James joined Noland, Hamerly, Etienne &amp; Hoss as a litigation associate in 2016 and has held the position of shareholder there since 2021. Berg-James has counseled clients on employment matters, construction defects, business disputes and more, according to the firm\u2019s website. Earlier in her career, she practiced at Schiff Hardin in San Francisco from 2013 to 2015. Before law school, Berg-James taught elementary school in Gilroy through Teach for America.<\/p>\n<p>Berg-James welcomed the appointment in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.monterey.courts.ca.gov\/news\/press-release-new-judicial-appointment-0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">statement<\/a> released by the Monterey County Superior Court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am deeply honored by Governor Newsom\u2019s appointment to the Monterey County Superior Court, and I look forward to serving the community I grew up in and have spent my career practicing law in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Dudley brings more than two decades of criminal defense experience to his new role as a San Diego County Superior Court judge.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2002, he has worked as a solo practitioner focused on criminal defense at his firm, the Law Office of Patrick Dudley. He has handled cases ranging from violent crimes to securities fraud and other \u201cwhite collar\u201d offenses, according to his firm\u2019s website. Before launching his own practice, he spent two years as a research attorney at the Law Office of David Dudley.<\/p>\n<p>Their appointments to the bench continue UC Law SF\u2019s long tradition of producing graduates who go on to serve as leaders in the law and public service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lindsey Berg-James \u201912 and William Patrick Dudley \u201999 bring extensive legal experience to their new roles as superior&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-445301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}