Kathleen M. Banke

Kathleen M. Banke photoAssociate Justice, Court of Appeal First District, Division One

Kathleen M. Banke was appointed as an Associate Justice to the Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division One, in June 2009. Prior to being elevated to the appellate bench, Justice Banke sat on the Alameda County Superior Court, to which she was appointed in June 2006. During her last year on the superior court bench, she was one of three judges appointed to the Alameda County Superior Court's Appellate Division and was an elected member of the Court's Executive Committee. Justice Banke now serves, by appointment, as vice-chair of the Center for Judicial Education and Research's Appellate Advisory Committee. She previously served on and was chair of the Practice Curriculum Committee. She is active in judicial education and participates in many statewide programs.

Before being appointed to the bench, Justice Banke was a partner at Reed Smith LLP, and before that, at Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May, which merged with Reed Smith. She specialized in appellate practice for more than 20 years, was the practice group leader for the Crosby, Heafey statewide, and then the Reed Smith nationwide, Appellate Practice Group, and represented clients in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the Ninth Circuit, the California Supreme Court, and all districts of the California Court of Appeal. She was counsel of record or co-counsel on more than 200 appeals and writs, many of which resulted in published opinions. She also regularly consulted with trial lawyers to help shape trial presentations and make the best record possible for an eventual appeal. These consultations included briefing and arguing issues in the trial courts, and preparing and arguing post-trial motions. She also handled complex civil law and motion matters and writ proceedings. She was a certified specialist in appellate law by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization, was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and was an active member (and is now an ex officio member) of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Justice Banke has written numerous articles on civil appellate and writ practice. She is a co-author of California Practice Guide: Civil Procedure Before Trial–Statutes of Limitations (The Rutter Group 2017) and is the the chief consulting editor of and a contributing author to the significantly revised and expanded California Civil Writ Practice (CEB 4th ed. 2008), and a contributing author to California Civil Appellate Practice (CEB 3d ed. 1996), Employment Litigation (TRG 2001), and Federal Civil Trials and Evidence (TRG 2000). Justice Banke served as a practitioner-advisor in appellate advocacy at Boalt Hall School of Law for three years, and before that as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law at Hastings College of the Law for three years teaching civil appellate advocacy. She continues to participate as a moot court judge for local law schools and other moot court competitions.