Judge Janet Hong was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court in July 2024 by Governor Gavin Newsom. Before she was appointed, she had her own criminal defense practice and taught in the Criminal Justice Clinic at UC Irvine Law School. Prior to starting her own firm, she worked at plaintiff’s firms handling employment, personal injury, and civil rights cases. She started her career working as a public defender at The Legal Aid Society in New York and then worked at the Alternate Public Defender’s Office in Los Angeles. During her career, Judge Hong was consistently recognized as a SuperLawyer in criminal defense and was named by The Daily Journal as one of the Top 100 Women Lawyers in California.
As a college student at Columbia University, Judge Hong played Division I basketball for the Columbia Women’s Basketball Team. Inspired by the Ethnic Studies movement at her school, she majored in African American Studies. She graduated from Columbia magna cum laude. At USC Law School, she served as the President of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, competed in the Hale Moot Court Honors Program, and worked with inmates in the Post-Conviction Justice Clinic.
Judge Hong is the co-founder of The K.W. Lee Center for Leadership, a youth leadership program in Koreatown that trains high school and college students in the art of community organizing. She is a lifetime member and past president of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles.
