Pasadena Resident Among Six Newsom L.A. County Bench Appointments

Gov. Gavin Newsom last week announced the appointment of eight new Los Angeles County judges, among them Tara L. Newman of Pasadena.

Newman, 46, has been a state deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice’s Office of the Attorney General since 2008. Previously, Newman was a sole practitioner from 2006 to 2008, an associate at Ivie McNeill & Wyatt from 2003 to 2006 and at Buchalter, Nemer, Fields & Younger from 1998 to 2003.

Along with Newman, Newsom also appointed five other judges to the local bench. They are:

• Abraham C. Meltzer, 55, of Glendale, who has been a deputy chief since 2018 at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, where he began working as an assistant U.S. attorney in 2004. His previous posts have included serving as counsel at the California State University’s Office of General Counsel from 2000 to 2004, an associate at Irell & Manella LLP from 1997 to 2000 and as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney from 1995 to 1997.
• Ramiro P. Cisneros, 53, of Eastvale, who worked as a deputy public defender for the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office since 2001 and was previously an associate at Parker Stanbury LLP from 1999 to 2001.
• E. Carlos Dominguez, 42, of Studio City, who has been a state deputy attorney general since 2009 and was formerly an associate at Rutan & Tucker LLP from 2005 to 2008. He has also been a lecturer in law at the USC School of Law this year.
• Benjamin P. Hernandez-Stern, 40, of Washington, D.C., who has served as counsel for the Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security since 2019. His previous posts include working as an attorney in the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Civil Rights from 2014 to 2019, special counsel in the Office for Access to Justice at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2016 to 2017, acting associate deputy director for enforcement and special assistant to the deputy director for enforcement and regional operations in the enforcement division at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights from 2012 to 2013 and serving as a judge advocate general in the U.S.Air Force Reserve since 2014.  
• Reginald L. Neal, 54, of View Park-Windsor Hills, who has been a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney since 2008 and formerly worked as a deputy attorney at the California Department of Transportation from 2006 to 2008 and as an associate insurance compliance officer at the California Department of Insurance from 2001 to 2005.

Newsom also appointed two new Superior Court judges to the Orange County bench. They are:

• Vibhav Mittal, 39, of Yorba Linda, has been a deputy chief with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District, where he began working as an assistant U.S. attorney in 2011, and has previously been a field organizer and campaign fellow for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2010 and as an associate at Quinn Emanuel LLP from 2008 to 2009.
• Scott M. Van Camp has been an Orange County Superior Court commissioner since 2019 and was formerly an Orange County deputy district attorney from 2018 to 2019 and as a senior deputy public defender at the Orange County Public Defender’s Office from 1999 to 2018.