Division Five: Associate Justice Lamar W. Baker

The Commission on Judicial Appointments unanimously confirmed Lamar Baker as a Justice of the Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District in 2015.

Before his appointment to the bench, Justice Baker served as Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel to the President at the White House from 2014 to 2015, where he served as Associate Counsel from 2013 to 2014.

From 2012 to 2013, he served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Policy in Washington, D.C., where he was chief of staff from 2011 to 2012 and senior counsel from 2010 to 2011. During his tenure at the Justice Department, the Attorney General of the United States recognized Justice Baker with the Award for Distinguished Service, the second-highest award given by the Department for employee performance.

From 2005 to 2010, Justice Baker served as a Federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles where he handled public corruption cases and represented the government in criminal appeals.  He worked in private practice at the law firm of Strumwasser and Woocher LLP from 2002 to 2005, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Dorothy W. Nelson at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2001 to 2002.

Justice Baker earned his law degree from Yale Law School and his Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Political Science from Stanford University. He was born and raised in the San Francisco area.