Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero to Deliver 2024 USD School of Law Commencement Address

SAN DIEGO (April 22, 2024) – Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero, the 29th Chief Justice of California, will address University of San Diego (USD) School of Law graduates at the 67th commencement on Saturday, May 18.

Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero was sworn into office on January 2, 2023, making history as the first Latina to serve as California’s Chief Justice. Nominated to office by Governor Gavin Newsom in August 2022, she received unanimous confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments the same month, and was overwhelmingly approved by voters in the November 2022 general election. 

In her 2024 State of the Judiciary Address, Chief Justice Guerrero highlighted the importance of three-branch solutions to challenging issues, including the use of remote technology and climate change, her concern about partisan attacks on the judiciary, and the evolving issue of generative artificial intelligence.

Prior to becoming Chief Justice of California, she first joined the California Supreme Court as an associate justice in March 2022, making her the first Latina to serve on the state’s high court. She served as an associate justice at the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division One since December 2017. Before her appellate appointment, she served as a judge at the Superior Court of San Diego County from 2013 to 2017, and was the supervising judge of its Family Law Division in 2017.

Preceding her appointment to the bench, Chief Justice Guerrero worked as an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP starting in 1997 and became an equity partner in 2006. She served as an assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of California from 2002 to 2003.

Chief Justice Guerrero is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and was born and raised in California’s Imperial Valley. She attended the University of California, Berkeley as an undergraduate and earned a Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School in 1997.

In July 2022, Chief Justice Guerrero was elected to the American Law Institute, an independent national organization that produces scholarly work to clarify, modernize and otherwise improve the law. She has also received numerous awards including in 2023: California Woman of the Year, USA Today; Justice Cruz Reynoso Community Service Award, Mexican American Bar Association; Lifetime Achievement Award, Orange County Hispanic Bar Association; Latino Spirit Award (Achievement in Law and Public Service), California Latino Legislative Caucus; “Precursora de Justicia” Award, Mexican American Bar Foundation; and Judge of the Year Award, La Raza Lawyers of Santa Clara County.

About the University of San Diego School of Law

Each year, USD educates approximately 800 Juris Doctor and graduate law students from throughout the United States and around the world. The law school is best known for its offerings in the areas of business and corporate law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international and comparative law, public interest law and taxation.

USD School of Law is one of the 84 law schools elected to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for law school graduates. The law school’s faculty is a strong group of outstanding scholars and teachers with national and international reputations and currently ranks 30th nationally among U.S. law faculties in scholarly impact and 41st nationally in past-year faculty downloads on the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN). The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.