Truc T. Do, Associate Justice
Appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom and unanimously confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, Justice Truc T. Do took the oath of office as an Associate Justice for the Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division One, on January 14, 2021. Before the Court of Appeal, she served as a judge of the San Diego Superior Court where she presided over criminal and family law courts.Justice Do was born in Pleiku, Vietnam and came to the United States as a war refugee at the age of 3 with her family in April of 1975. The family settled in San Diego after their relocation through the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen at age 11 in 1982. Justice Do grew up in San Diego where she attended public schools. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1993, graduating magna cum laude, and a Juris Doctor degree at Stanford Law School in 1997.
Before her judicial career, Justice Do was a Partner at the law firms of Munger, Tolles & Olson (Los Angeles) and Jones Day (San Diego), where she practiced complex civil litigation and white-collar criminal defense from 2009 to 2018. From 1999 to 2009, she was a criminal prosecutor in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office; there she prosecuted homicides in the Hardcore Gang Division and Major Crimes Division. During her 20-year career as a trial lawyer, Justice Do tried 76 cases to jury verdict, including 20 homicide cases, two of which were death penalty cases.
Justice Do represents the Fourth Appellate District on the Supreme Court and Appellate Court Bias Prevention Committee, whose mission it is to support the integrity and impartiality of the judicial system and promote an appellate court environment free of bias. She previously served as Trustee on the Board of Trustees for the San Diego Law Library; Director on several boards of nonprofit organizations dedicated to promoting equal access to the legal system for underrepresented and disadvantaged citizens in the community, including the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program and California Women’s Law Center; Member of Governor Newsom’s Regional Judicial Selection Advisory Committee (JSAC) and the Los Angeles County Bar Association Judicial Appointments Committee.
Justice Do has been honored with the Bernard E. Witkin Award for Excellence in the Adjudication of the Law (2021); APABA Trailblazer Award (2021); Law360 Trial Ace (2015); Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys Prosecutor of the Year (2008); and Justice for Homicide Victims, Inc. Outstanding Prosecutor (2006).