Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Judge Stephen Thomas Morgan received his B.A. in political science from Messiah University in 2000. During college, he interned for the Harrisburg Pennsylvania public defender’s office and for Congressman Benjamin Cardin. After graduation from college, he moved to Hawaii where he became the Deputy Executive Director for Honolulu Habitat for Humanity. He earned his J.D./M.B.A. from the University of Hawaii at Manoa – William S. Richardson School of Law in 2005, where he was the recipient of a Kauffman Entrepreneurial Grant and took First Place in the University of Hawaii Business Plan Competition. He also participated in the Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition and worked as a research assistant on a land use textbook.
After graduation from business school and law school, he was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the Army Advocate General’s Corps and worked as an Army JAG Corps attorney. He did two tours in Iraq (2009 to 2010) where he was a felony prosecutor and primary legal advisor to the commander for the special operations joint task force combating ISIS in Iraq. Outside of his military service, he passed the Illinois bar in 2005, the Hawaii bar in 2006, and the California bar in 2009. He worked in criminal defense for the law firm of Mitchell S. Sexner and Associates in Chicago, then as an adjunct professor at the John Marshall School of Law where he taught legal writing and oral argument, then at Salerno and Associates, and then as a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles starting in 2012. He was a founder and chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Armed Forces Committee and taught legal research and writing as an adjunct professor at Abraham Lincoln University School of Law. He was elected to the bench in 2020.
Links
Los Angeles Superior Court - Courtroom Information
The Robing Room – Hon. Stephen Morgan
Professor Steve Morgan – Running for LA County Superior Court