Hon. Elaine Lu

Elaine Lu was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court in 2007.  She currently presides over Department 26, one of the Independent Calendar courts at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse.  She was appointed as one of two Assistant Supervising Judges of the civil courts as of January 1, 2021. From 2016 through 2018, Judge Lu was assigned to a non-collections limited civil court, then to one of the personal injury hubs.  Prior to her civil assignments, Judge Lu presided over a felony preliminary hearing calendar in the Pasadena courthouse and misdemeanor calendars at the Metropolitan and East Los Angeles Courthouses.  Judge Lu has taught seminars for fellow bench officers on such topics as privileges, speedy trial rights, default judgments, judicial demeanor, and new legislation affecting civil courts.  As Co-Chair of the L.A. Superior Court’s Power Lunch Committee, Judge Lu helps organize Power Lunches to bring high school students, lawyers, judges, and court staff members together at courthouses throughout the county to discuss career choices and the legal system.  Judge Lu also presides over a Teen Court every month, where juvenile offenders are questioned, judged, and sentenced by a jury of Pasadena High School students.

Prior to joining the bench, Judge Lu served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California where she was assigned to the Major Frauds section, prosecuting white-collar, securities fraud, and bank fraud cases, and then served as Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Section.  Earlier in her legal career, Judge Lu served as a law clerk to the Honorable Rudi M. Brewster of the United States District Court in the Southern District of California, and also to the Honorable A. Wallace Tashima of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Judge Lu is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Stanford University.