Judge Daniel Joseph Buckley received his B.A. with honors from the University of Notre Dame in 1977 and his J.D. from there as well in 1980. During law school, he was part of the National Moot Court Trial Team and received the William J. Barrett Award for Outstanding Achievement in Trial Advocacy. After passing the California Bar in 1980, he worked for and later became a partner at the law firm of Breidenbach, Buckley, Huchting, Halm & Hamblet until he was appointed to the bench by Governor Gray Davis in 2002. Thereafter, he became the Assistant Supervising Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, the Supervising Judge in 2012, the Assistant Presiding Judge in 2015, and was the Presiding Judge in 2017. He serves as an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School, USC Gould School of Law, and the University of Notre Dame.