Ronald B. Robie has served as an Associate Justice on the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, since January 2002. Previously he served from 1983 as a Judge of both the Sacramento Superior and Municipal Courts. He was presiding judge in 1994-95. He was named “Judge of the Year” by the Sacramento County Bar Association in 2002. He received the Ronald M. George Award for Judicial Excellence from the Judicial Council in 2011.

Justice Robie served on the Board of Directors of the National Center for State Courts from 2005-2011. He is the Chair for 2010-2013 of the California Commission on Access to Justice and the California Supreme Court Committee on Judicial Ethics Advisory Opinions . He served as a member of the Chief Justice’s Commission for Impartial Courts and Chair of its Task Force on Judicial Selection and Retention. He formerly was a member of the Judicial Council of California, the governing body for California Courts, and the Federal-State Judicial Council.

Education is a special interest of Justice Robie. He has taught water law and environmental law at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, since 1970. He served as Chair of the Governing Committee of the California Center for Judiciary Education and Research (CJER) for many years and has taught at many institutes and programs conducted by CJER, including a course on the California Environmental Quality Act..

Prior to assuming the bench, Justice Robie was a leader in California Water matters. He served from 1975 to 1983 as Director of the California Department of Water Resources and from 1969 to 1975 as a member and Vice Chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board. This followed service as a Legislative Intern and Committee Consultant to the California Legislature, Assembly Committee on Water from 1960 to 1969 where he wrote many significant water laws. In 1975 he served as Chair of the Water Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. Since 1974, Justice Robie has been the California Reporter for the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute’s Water Law Newsletter and is a co-author of California Civil Practice, Environmental Litigation, first published in 1993 by Thomson-West Publishing Co. He is a co-convener of “Dividing the Waters,” an educational project for water judges, masters, and referees affiliated with the National Judicial College. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Water Education Foundation.

Justice Robie received Bachelor of Arts (1958, with Honors) and Master of Journalism (1960) degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law (1967, With Highest Honors). He is a native of Oakland, California. Justice Robie and Lynn DeForest married in 1958 and they have two children, Todd Robie and Melissa Robie and four grandchildren, Charles and Zoey Robie and Dylan and Megan Reid.