JUSTICE JAMES LAMBDEN
California Court of Appeal

After graduating from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1975, Justice Lambden practiced as a civil trial lawyer until 1989. He first served as a Superior Court Judge in Alameda County before becoming an Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal in 1996. 

He has been certified as an instructor in law in the Peralta Community College District since 1978, and in 2001 presented the Witkin Lecture at the Bernard Witkin Judicial College. From 1988 to 1989, he served on the California State Bar Joint Advisory Committee for Continuing Education. He was a member of the Faculty and Planning Committee of the California Center for Judicial Education and Research from 1992 to 1994, and continues to be a frequent contributor to judicial education programs and legal publications.

Justice Lambden co-founded and then served as counsel for the Bay Area Center for Law and the Deaf from 1978 to1982, and was the chairman of the Judicial Council Committee for Certification of Interpreters for the Deaf from 1992 to 1996. 

In the late 1980s, Justice Lambden served as Executive Chairman of the Alameda County Bar Association Foundation, and also served on the Board of Directors of the Alameda County Bar Association. In 1997, he was honored for public service by a resolution of the Alameda County Bar Foundation. 

From 1995 to 1996, he was a member of the Executive Board of the California Judges Association. In 1997, Justice Lambden was on the California State Bar Access to Justice Commission, eventually serving as chairman of the Commission from 2000 to 2002. He continues to serve ex officio on the Commission and on the Bench Bar Coalition, which consults with the Legislature on matters of importance to the Judicial Branch and Bar.

Since 2003, Justice Lambden has been a member, and now chairman, of the California Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Access and Fairness. Starting in 2006 and continuing to today, he has been an Executive Board Member of the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness, as well as the Co-chairman of the Task Force on Lawyer Support for Legal Services formed by the State Bar under the direction of the California Legislature (AB 2301). 

Updated February 27, 2008