Hon. Maria Byrum

Maria Rivas Byrum is Cuban American and proud of her Hispanic heritage. She is a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge and is presently in a criminal courtroom.    She serves as a board member of WLALA and chairperson of the family law section. She has been an active member of WLALA since the 1990s.

She began her legal career in private practice as a federal criminal law attorney and then over 20 years ago changed her practice to family law.  She became a certified family law specialist.  For over 25 years as an attorney, Judge Byrum was also the Legal Counsel for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, through the Consulate of Colombia in Los Angeles.   She advised the government regarding U.S., state, local and international laws and was able to provide service to the Colombian community through the Consulate.

Judge Byrum has always been an active volunteer in the legal and non-legal community.  Since was in a court committee on the reopening of the courts after the COVID shut down; she has planned webinars on different issues; she volunteered on several occasions as a moot court judge for middle school and high school students; she is on the court Access and Fairness committee;  she is a judge in Teen Court; and she has participated in a project related to Judges in the Classroom, through the LA Superior Court Latino Judges Association.