Kathryn Werdegar

Kathryn Jocelyn Mickle Werdegar (born April 5, 1936) is a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California, serving from June 3, 1994, to August 31, 2017. Biography Werdegar earned her B.A. with honors at the University of California, Berkeley and then attended the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), class of 1962, before completing her J.D. degree at the George Washington University Law School, where she graduated as valedictorian of her class. While at Boalt Hall, Werdegar served as editor-in-chief of the California Law Review. In 1961, she married David Werdegar. In 1962, following graduation, she joined the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice working under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in Washington, D.C. In 1963, after returning to California, she held a series of legal and teaching positions, including associate dean and professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law. In 1981, she was hired as a research attorney for the state courts, where she worked with various justices, and then worked directly with Edward A. Panelli as a senior attorney. In 1991, Governor Pete Wilson appointed Werdegar as an associate justice of the California Court of Appeal, First District.