Please Help us Welcome ACBA Member Clifford Blakely and Karin Schwartz to the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda!

Clifford T. Blakely Jr., 48, of Moraga, has been appointed to a judgeship in the Alameda County Superior Court. Blakely has served as a deputy public defender at the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office since 2014. He was a sole practitioner from 2007 to 2014 and a deputy public defender at the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office from 1996 to 2007. Blakely earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Southern California School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern California. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Gloria F. Rhynes. Blakely is a Democrat. 

Karin S. Schwartz, 54, of Sacramento, has been appointed to a judgeship in the Alameda County Superior Court. Schwartz has served as deputy director and chief counsel at the California Department of Public Health since 2013. She served in several positions at the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General from 2003 to 2013, including as supervising deputy attorney general and acting senior assistant attorney general. Schwartz was a Supreme Court fellow at the National Association of Attorneys General in 2007. She was an associate at Munger, Tolles and Olson LLP from 2000 to 2003 and at Debevoise and Plimpton LLP from 1995 to 2000. Schwartz served as a law clerk for the Honorable Jack B. Weinstein at the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York in 1994. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bryn Mawr College. She fills the vacancy created by the elevation of Judge Ioana Petrou to the Court of Appeal. Schwartz is a Democrat.