Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Riverside prosecutor Sophia Choi to serve as a Riverside judge, his office announced March 12.
Choi joined the bar in 2006 after graduating from Southwestern Law School, and worked at the Riverside County Counsel’s Office from 2007 to 2020, where she focused on code enforcement. She joined the Riverside District Attorney’s Office in 2020, and was promoted to senior deputy district attorney in 2023.
A profile of her posted on the District Attorney’s website said she was born in San Francisco, and moved to Riverside County when she was 5 years old.
She graduated from Notre Dame High School, and earned her undergraduate at University of California, Los Angeles, the profile says. Her older sister, Sylvia, also works at the District Attorney’s Office.
Choi co-founded, and was president of, the Asian Pacific American Lawyers of the Inland Empire in 2013.
She served as president of the Leo A. Deegan Inn of Court in 2019, and president of the Riverside County Bar Association in 2021. She also served as president of the global Korean Prosecutors Association in 2023.
Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin named her the Appellate Prosecutor of the Year in 2021, the profile says.
A June 2020 Riverside County Bar Association newsletter says that she served on the Association’s 2020-21 Community Service Team, which raised $1,890 for a Coronavirus Relief Fund.
She has profiled judges: in 2014, she wrote a profile of then-San Bernardino Superior Judge Sunshine Sykes, who has since been appointed to the federal court; and in 2011 wrote a profile of Appellate Justice Carol Codrington. Both profiles were published in the Riverside Bar magazine.
