Judge Laurie Earl

Hon. Laurie M. Earl
Presiding Judge, Superior Court of Sacramento County

Membership: Advisory member, appointed by Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye

Internal Committee: Rules and Projects Committee
Council Liaison to: Courts of Sutter and Yolo Counties; AOC Judicial Council Support Services

Judge Earl served as the court’s assistant presiding judge for a two-year term starting in 2010, and was elected presiding judge starting Jan 1, 2012. Judge Earl began her legal career in 1989 as an assistant public defender in Sacramento County and in 1995 joined the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office as a deputy district attorney. During her career as a prosecutor, Judge Earl worked in a number of divisions, including domestic violence, sexual assault, and homicide. In 2004, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed her the senior assistant inspector general for California. Assigned to the newly created Bureau of Independent Review, Judge Earl was the Northern California regional supervisor in charge of the independent review of internal affairs investigations at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Judge Earl’s alma mater, Lincoln Law School of Sacramento, honored her as Alumnus of the Year this year and in 2005. The Capitol City Trial Lawyers Association named her Judge of the Year in 2010. Judge Earl is a member of the Judicial Council’s Trial Court Presiding Judges Advisory Committee and that group’s Executive Committee, as well as the Trial Court Presiding Judges/Court Executives Advisory Committees’ Joint Rules Working Group. She chairs the Trial Court Presiding Judges Advisory Committee’s working group on court reconciliation and is a member of the Trial Court Budget Working Group.

As chair of the Trial Court Presiding Judges Advisory Committee, she served as a non-voting member of the Judicial Council. In Sept 2013, Judge Brian Walsh became chair of the committee and joined the council.