Hon. Susan Formaker

Susan L. Formaker is the General Jurisdiction Division Chief Administrative Law Judge for the Office of Administrative Hearings for the State of California. She joined the Office of Administrative Hearings in 2008. ALJ Formaker began her career in private practice before becoming an in-house litigator in the Bank of America Office of General Counsel, where she held the position of Senior Counsel, and in the Washington Mutual Legal Department, where she was First Vice President and Assistant General Counsel. ALJ Formaker has served on the Board of Governors of California Women Lawyers (since 2005), and on the Board of Governors of the Woman Lawyers’ Association of Los Angeles (2012 – present and 1988 – 1993). She also serves Co-Chair of the Administrative Judiciary Committee of the National Association of Women Judges and was a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Bioethics Committee from 1988-1990. ALJ Formaker joined the faculty of the National Judicial College in 2010 and regularly teaches for the college. She was named a 2010 – 2011 Woman of Achievement by California Women Lawyers and is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. As a law student, ALJ Formaker served as a judicial extern for U.S. District Court Judge Consuelo B. Marshall and as a Commonwealth Fellow on the President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research. She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology, magna cum laude and with departmental honors, from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa and named a Distinguished Scholar. ALJ Formaker is a graduate of the UCLA School of Law.