Danny Y. Chou

Justice Chou began his judicial career in February 2018 as a judge on the San Mateo County Superior Court after his appointment by Governor Edmund G. Brown in December 2017. In San Mateo County, he served as a civil direct calendar judge, a preliminary hearing and trial judge, a grand jury judge, and a judge on the court’s appellate division and sat as a pro tem on Division Three of the First Appellate District. He also started the court’s Community Outreach Committee—which seeks to connect San Mateo County residents, organizations, and educational institutions with their local judicial system—and served as the first chair of that Committee.

Before joining the bench, Justice Chou served as the Chief of Appellate Litigation and Chief of Complex and Special Litigation for the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office and as the Assistant County Counsel supervising the Social Justice and Impact Litigation, Health and Hospitals, and Probate teams for the Santa Clara County Counsel’s Office. He has worked in the judiciary as a supervising and judicial staff attorney for Justice Janice R. Brown at the California Supreme Court, a staff attorney at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and a law clerk to Judge Stanley A. Weigel at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. He was also a litigation associate for several years at Howard, Rice, Nemorovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin.

During his career, Justice Chou has served or continues to serve on the boards of the Northern District Practice Program, the Harvard Law School Association of Northern California, and the Asian Law Alliance. He has also served on the State Bar of California’s Commissions for the Revision of the Rules of Professional Conduct and as the co-chair of the judiciary committee for the Asian American Bar Association and a Ninth Circuit lawyer representative. He was awarded Trial Lawyer of the Year by Public Justice in 2014. Justice Chou graduated phi beta kappa and magna cum laude from Harvard University and cum laude from Harvard Law School. He is admitted to the patent bar.

Justice Chou lives in San Mateo County with his wife and two children.