The San Bernardino County Bar Association honored former San Bernardino Superior Presiding Judge R. Glenn Yabuno with the Kaufman Campbell Award for Judicial Excellence May 23.
The annual award presentation dinner was held in the Mitten Building in downtown Redlands.
Yabuno was a supervising judge from 2015 until 2020, was presiding judge in charge of the court’s entire judicial administration in 2021, and served on multiple statewide judicial committees. The award, however, was not just given to him for his leadership roles, but for his off-the-clock efforts to further civility and cooperation in the legal community, said current San Bernardino Superior Presiding Judge Lisa Rogan.
When 20 new judges joined the court—some from outside the county and without an understanding of San Bernardino’s judicial culture—Yabuno planned social event after social event to make sure they acclimated, Rogan said.
He planned bowling, tailgating, baseball, hockey and Topgolf outings, and made sure to take a photo each time, Rogan said.
His work extended beyond the local court: he worked hard to plan dinners with the presiding and assistant presiding judges of all the county courts in Southern California. When Rogan asked Yabuno why he took it upon himself to do so, while he was already burdened with administering San Bernardino’s comparatively underfunded court, Yabuno would say, “If we don’t do it, it won’t get done.” That was one of his mottos, Rogan said.
Yabuno thanked those who helped him on his journey, before encouraging people to become more involved in their community. He thanked his daughter Allyssa and son Michael, his wife Chris, the former court executive officer Mary Davis, Judges Brian McCarville, Janet Frangie, Khymberli Apaloo, and all of the court’s judges en masse.
“You are the hardest working judges in this state,” Yabuno said, referencing the county’s geographic challenges with a widespread and rural populace, and the court’s consistent underfunding.
He encouraged attendees to foster community, referencing the work done by Judges Marcus Kaufman and Joseph Campbell, for whom his award is named.
The two judges would have after work discussions at bars and restaurants, and worked hard to build San Bernardino’s collegial atmosphere.
“That was very important—you got face to face, you got to know people,” Yabuno said.
“It is a time of camaraderie. A time when we got together. A time when somebody’s word meant something. When a handshake could seal a deal. And we need to get back to those times. For those of you that are newer to the profession: my charge for you is to get back to those times. Volunteer at the legal clinic. Volunteer to be a coach, or a scorer for mock trial. Volunteer in your local community activities. Be involved. Come to these functions more often. To the west-end functions. The High Desert is reinvigorating their bar association. Go up to those functions and meet people. To those that are more seasoned, and be around more: mentor these individuals. Help them become better lawyers,” Yabuno said.
Yabuno’s past
Rogan shared Yabuno’s biography. He was raised in Fresno by adoptive parents who had both been held in the detention camps the United States of America set up for Japanese-Americans during World War II. His father became a Fresno dentist, and raised Yabuno with what Yabuno told Rogan was a normal childhood. But he taught his son to always pay proper respect to everyone, Rogan recounted.
“He (Yabuno’s father) was quiet, but stoic. ‘He taught me always to treat people with respect, no matter their standing in life’,” Rogan quoted Yabuno as saying.
Yabuno was supposed to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor—but dropped out of the college program as soon as he took organic chemistry, he said. He switched from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, to California State University, Fresno, and graduated with a degree in criminal justice. He worked for the Fresno County Probation Department as a group counselor, inspiring him to get further involved in law. He graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law in 1983.
He was, by his own explanation, forced to move into Southern California after the District Attorney’s offices in Northern California had a hiring freeze. He was rejected by the Riverside District Attorney’s Office before being hired by the San Bernardino District Attorney’s Office. He had, he said, waived his interview at first, thinking that San Bernardino was a step down from Fresno.
He worked in the office from 1984 until 1988, before practicing civil law at Wilson, Borror, Dunn & Scott in San Bernardino. He returned to the DA’s Office in 1993 to work in their environmental and consumer fraud unit, and worked as a lead deputy district attorney until he was appointed to the bench in 2010.
He volunteered in the American Youth Soccer Organization, was a reserve deputy with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, was a member of the California District Attorneys Association Board of Directors, served on the board of a local chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League and taught at San Bernardino Valley College as an adjunct professor.
After he joined the bench, Yabuno served on the Court Executive Committee, the Criminal Law Committee, the Technology Committee, the Security Committee, the Budget Committee, the Appellate Panel, the Commission on Judicial Appointments Criminal Law Committee, the Judicial Commission of California Court Security Committee and the Judicial Commission of California Interstate Compact Committee.
Kaufman and Campbell
Campbell was born and raised in Victorville, and worked as a rancher before graduating from University of Southern California School of Law in 1959. He served as a Victorville councilman from 1962 to 1972, during which time he became mayor. Gov. Ronald Reagan appointed him to a San Bernardino judgeship in 1972, and he was appointed to the Court of Appeal by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1986.
The Joseph B. Campbell Inn of Court also bears his name.
His son, Scott Campbell, spoke at the dinner. He said that his father’s civility came from his art of conversation.
“That, I believe, is my father’s legacy. It is understanding what you are doing, and who you are doing it for, and who you are doing it with. It is that ability to communicate and understand the people that he is working with, and the people who are appearing before him,” Campbell said.
Marcus Kaufman graduated from UCLA in 1951. He served in the Korean War, and graduated from USC Law in 1956, after working as the editor of the Law Review. He clerked under California Chief Justice Roger Traynor, who was at the time an associate justice. He was directly appointed to the Court of Appeal in 1970, and was one of the few who was appointed directly to the appellate court. He was elevated to the California Supreme Court in 1987, and served three years until he retired in 1990.
His daughter, Sharon Kaufman Granowitz, reiterated the purpose of the award, as spoken by past recipient and award creator San Bernardino Superior Judge Wilfred Schneider: “It is the civil ethical, professional, diligent, thoughtful, reflective, measured and patient jurist who can best weave together the words to make sense out of life and society,” Kaufman said.
The San Bernardino County Bar Association, which provided the award, is the oldest active bar association in California, said Justin King, the bar president. It will be celebrating its 100-year anniversary in December 2025.
