September 8, 2022 — MCLE Luncheon via Zoom — Hon. Irma E. Gonzalez

We are very pleased to welcome as our speaker for this event:

Honorable Irma E. Gonzalez

Judge, U.S.D.C. (Retired), and currently active as a mediator, arbitrator, special master and discovery referee with JAMS.

Thursday, September 8, 2022
12:00 pm via Zoom meeting

Judge Gonzalez will draw on her extensive experience in presenting “Judging From the Bench and Judging as a Mediator, the Differences.”  (1.0 hr CLE credit.)

Information about Our Speaker:

Judge Gonzalez, a retired United States District Court Judge, is presently a neutral with JAMS where she is a mediator, arbitrator, special master and discovery referee.  She was appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of California on August 12, 1992, becoming the first Latina of Mexican heritage to be appointed to the federal bench.  She served as Chief Judge of the District Court from January, 2005 to January, 2012.  Judge Gonzalez served as a judge on the Superior Court, San Diego County (1991-1992) and as a Magistrate Judge, Southern District of California (1984-1991).  Judge Gonzalez retired from the federal bench in October, 2013.

Judge Gonzalez graduated from Stanford University in 1970 and received her law degree from the University of Arizona School of Law, now known as the James E. Rogers School of Law, in 1973.  

Judge Gonzalez served as a law clerk to United States District Judge, William C. Frey in Tucson, Arizona (1973-1975).  She served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the criminal division of the United States Attorney’s Office in the District of Arizona and the Central District of California (1975-1982).  Judge Gonzalez was a civil litigator in private practice with the law firm, then known as Seltzer Caplan Wilkins & McMahon, from 1982-1984.

Judge Gonzalez is a founding member of Latinas in the Law and is on the Lawyers Club Advisory Board.  She is on the Board of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers.  

Judge Gonzalez is a Master of the William B. Enright Inn of Court.  She is also on the Board of Trustees of the San Diego Humane Society and on the Board of Trustees of Scripps Health. Judge Gonzalez is a member of the San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary Club.

In 2008 Judge Gonzalez was named Outstanding Jurist by the San Diego County Bar Association.  In 2011 she received the Joan Dempsey Klein distinguished Jurist award from the California Women Lawyers and in 2013 Judge Gonzalez received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hispanic National Bar Association. In 2015 the University of Arizona, James Rogers School of Law, awarded Judge Gonzalez a Lifetime Achievement Award. 

In 2017 Judge Gonzalez was inducted into the San Diego Women’s Hall of Fame. In 2021 Judge Gonzalez was awarded the  Lawyer’s Club Excellence in Diversity Award; and she was selected that same year to be a recipient of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession Margaret Brent Award.

Judge Gonzalez is married to attorney Robert Brewer, the former United States Attorney for the Southern District of California. They have a married daughter and two granddaughters.