Deputy Public Defender Melissa Hale will sit on the Riverside bench, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Dec. 7.
Hale joined the Riverside County Office of the Public Defender in 2006, immediately after she joined the State Bar.
She received her Juris Doctor Degree from Whittier Law School, and graduated with dual majors in political science and business from the University of California, Riverside, in 1999. She was an adjunct professor at University of La Verne College of Law from 2016 to 2019.
She fills the spot left by Judge Elaine Kiefer’s retirement.
