Born in Pomona, California, Judge Serena Raquel Murillo earned her B.A. in political science while attending the University of California, San Diego and Brown University where she played NCAA basketball, and her J.D. from Loyola Law School Los Angeles in 1996. During law school, she served on the board of the Public Interest Law Foundation and gained experience in the Center for Conflict Resolution. After passing the California bar in 1996, she worked at McNicholas and McNicholas before joining the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in 1997. She ran for election to the bench in 2008 but did not win, and then ran again and won in 2014. She has served as faculty for the California Judicial Council’s Center for Judicial Education and Research, the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Judicial Education Seminars, B.E. Witkin Judicial College, and was a lecturer at USC Gould School of Law and taught advanced criminal procedure at UCI Law. She was a founding member of the Latino Prosecutor’s Association and Latino Prosecutor’s Foundation, co-chair of the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Latino Judicial Officers Association, a member of the California Latino Judges Association, the Mexican American Bar Association, and the California State Bar’s Commission for Judicial Nominees Evaluation. She is also fluent in Spanish and married to Judge Christian Gullon.
Author
Mistrials and Good Cause to Excuse Jurors – Daily Journal
“We the People”: 100 years’ perspective on the 19th Amendment – Daily Journal
Awards
2019 – Amigo de los Niños award – Hollenbeck Youth Center and Inner-City Games
2018 – Award for Exemplary Service and Leadership to the Judicial Branch – California Supreme Court
Links
Los Angeles Superior Court - Courtroom Information
The Robing Room – Hon. Serena R. Murillo
Serena R. Murillo – Ballotpedia
Serena R. Murillo – USC Gould School of Law
Serena R. Murillo – Metropolitan News-Enterprise
Striving to Include Everyone in the Justice System: Serena Murillo – Mayfield Crier