The California Supreme Court Committee on Judicial Ethics Opinions (CJEO) has issued advice about whether judges participating in the California Judicial Mentor Program should disqualify from cases in which their mentee attorneys appear.
The program was launched by Gov. Gavin Newsom in July as a statewide undertaking between the executive and judicial branches. It pairs judges with judicial applicants at both the trial and appellate court levels with the goal of broadening judicial diversity and demystifying the application process.
In CJEO Expedited Opinion 2022-045, the committee concludes that judges acting as mentors should disqualify from cases involving mentee attorneys because a reasonable observer might doubt a mentor judge’s ability to be impartial. The committee
