---
title: Judge Sergio C. Tapia II
url: https://www.advocatemagazine.com/authors/judge-sergio-c-tapia-ii
---

![Judge Sergio C. Tapia II](https://www.advocatemagazine.com/media/zoo/images/Tapia-Sergio_6749cd0966d1bd12e8536fcb0e3b555a.jpg)

# Judge Sergio C. Tapia II

*Judge Sergio C. Tapia II is Presiding Judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, the nation’s largest unified trial court, where he directs its resources toward meaningful access to justice for all. Appointed in 2013 by Governor Edmund G. Brown, he previously served as Assistant Presiding Judge, Criminal Division Supervising Judge, Assistant Criminal Division Supervising Judge, and in numerous leadership roles on the court. He serves on the Judicial Council’s Trial Court Presiding Judges Advisory Committee and Court Facilities Advisory Committee, Governor Gavin Newsom’s Judicial Selection Advisory Committee, and the Executive Board of the National Association of Presiding Judges and Court Executive Officers. He came to the bench after nearly seventeen years as a public defender. He also worked as an attorney at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. A faculty member for the Center for Judicial Education and Research, he has spoken on artificial intelligence in the courts at Stanford Law School. He co-authored and presented research on justice innovation at the European Group for Public Administration’s annual conference in Glasgow, Scotland. He is President of the California Latino Judges Association and the Los Angeles Superior Court Judges’ Association. Bar associations across the region’s diverse legal community have honored his service. Fluent in Spanish, he holds degrees from U.C. Berkeley and the University of Iowa College of Law.*