Cali Gov. Brown appoints 2 Fil-Am Superior Court judges

California Governor Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr.

Sacramento – Governor Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr. appointed 13 California superior court judges, including two Filipino Americans.

The appointments include one in Alameda County, one in Contra Costa County, three in Los Angeles County, one in Riverside County, two in Sacramento County, three in San Diego County, one in Santa Clara County, and one in Solano County.

Two Filipino-American women were named to the bench:

Rohanee Zapanta, 42, of San Diego, will be a judge in the San Diego County Superior Court. Zapanta has served as a deputy public defender at the San Diego County Public Defender’s Office since 2005. She was an associate at the Law Offices of Bay Bulaon in 2005 and at the Price Law Group from 2003 to 2004.

Rohanee Zapanta

Zapanta was a law clerk at the Law Offices of Robert L. Swain and at the San Diego County Public Defender’s Office in 2002. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of San Diego. She fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Judith F. Hayes. Zapanta is a Democrat.

Audra Ibarra

Audra Ibarra, 49, of Palo Alto, will be a judge in the Santa Clara County Superior Court. She has been counsel at California Appellate Law Group since 2012 and a sole practitioner since 2010. Ibarra served as the deputy chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force at the US Attorney’s Office, Northern District of California from 2005 to 2006, where she was an Assistant US Attorney from 2001 to 2006.

Ibarra served as an Assistant US Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of California from 1999 to 2001. She served as a deputy district attorney at the Solano County District Attorney’s Office from 1997 to 1999. Ibarra was an associate at Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro from 1994 to 1996.

She is a member of the California Judicial Council. Ibarra earned a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She fills the vacancy created by the elevation of Judge Mary J. Greenwood to the Court of Appeal. She is the first Filipino American ever appointed to the Santa Clara County Superior Court and the first Filipino-American woman to serve as a superior court judge in the Bay Area. Ibarra is registered without party preference.