Presiding Judge Theodore C. Zayner

Current Term: Sept. 15, 2021 – Sept. 14, 2022
Membership: Advisory Member, appointed by Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye
Internal Committees: Executive and Planning Committee, Legislation Committee

Presiding Judge Theodore C. Zayner, Superior Court of Santa Clara County, is appointed as an advisory member to the Judicial Council effective September 15, 2021. He has been at the Superior Court of Santa Clara County since he was appointed to the bench by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009 and began his term as the presiding judge on January 1, 2021. His judicial career has included assignments in the Civil, Criminal, Family, Drug, and Appellate Divisions, and he has served as Supervising Judge of the Civil Division. He currently serves as the chair of the Trial Court Presiding Judges Advisory Committee and its Executive Committee and member of the Information Technology Advisory Committee.

Presiding Judge Zayner is actively involved in legal and judicial education as a lecturer and instructor with the Santa Clara County Bar Association, Judicial Council of California Center for Judicial Education and Research, and California Judges Association (CJA). He is a member of CJA’s Executive Board, an Associate of the American Board of Trial Advocates, a member of the Board of Governors of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers of Northern California, and President of the Hon. William A. Ingram American Inn of Court. He was named Trial Judge of the Year in 2016 by the Santa Clara County Trial Lawyers' Association.