Michael J. Raphael

Judge Michael J. Raphael was appointed to Los Angeles Superior Court in 2011. Prior to his appointment, Judge Raphael was an Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles for over twelve years, serving as Chief of the Appeals Section during his last five years. As an attorney, Judge Raphael orally argued over forty cases in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and he received an Attorney General’s award for his work as special prosecutor in the leak of grand jury testimony from athletes in the BALCO case. He has taught criminal law and advocacy courses at USC’s Gould School of Law and George Washington University’s law school. Judge Raphael worked as counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives, for the law firm Sidley Austin LLP, and as a law clerk to a federal appellate judge. Judge Raphael graduated from Yale Law School.