Halim Dhanidina
Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Second District
In office
2018 – March 31, 2021
Appointed byJerry Brown
Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court
In office
2012–2018
Appointed byJerry Brown
Personal details
Born
Al-Halim Dhanidina[1]

(1972-09-20) September 20, 1972[2][3]
Chicago, Illinois
EducationPomona College (BA)
University of California, Los Angeles (JD)

Halim Dhanidina (born September 20, 1972) is an American lawyer and former judge from California. As of April 1, 2022, is a partner at the criminal defense firm of Werksman Jackson & Quinn LLP in Los Angeles.[4] He was a justice of the California Court of Appeal for the Second District. Appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court bench by Governor Jerry Brown in 2012, he is the first Muslim to ever be appointed judge in California.[5] He is an Ismaili Shiite of Gujarati Indian heritage, his parents immigrating from Tanzania.[6][7][8]

Career

Halim Dhanidina was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1972. He graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1990.[1]

He was a Deputy District Attorney of Los Angeles County for fourteen years, prosecuting cases for the Hardcore Gang and Major Crimes Divisions. He is also a founding member of the Association of South Asian Prosecutors, and a member of the Asia Pacific American and South Asian Bar Association.[9]

Prior to becoming a prosecutor, he obtained a Juris Doctor degree from UCLA School of Law, where he was the co-chair of the Asia Pacific Islander Law Students Association.[5][10][11] Before that, he completed a B.A. in International Relations at Pomona College in 1994, where he founded the Muslim Students Association.[12]

In 2012, Governor Brown appointed him to serve as a judge on the Los Angeles County Superior Court and in 2018 Brown appointed him to Division Three of the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District.[13] The Commission on Judicial Appointments unanimously confirmed him on August 23, 2018.[13]

He is a devoted teacher and mentor and has worked as an adjunct professor at the Chapman University Fowler School of Law, Western State Law School, Whittier Law School and the Glendale University College of Law, where he has taught criminal trial advocacy, civil trial advocacy, criminal procedure, professional responsibility, and California criminal law.[13] The former justice is also a law lecturer at The Universitry of California in Los Angeles Law School[14] and is an adjunct professor at UCI Irvine.[15]

In April 2016, while dismissing charges of lewd conduct and indecent exposure against a defendant in his court, Judge Dhanidina strongly criticized sting operations by the Long Beach Police Department directed at gay men seeking sex in public places, noting that the sting operations appeared to induce the conduct for which the defendants were then arrested, and that the police apparently did not conduct any similar sting operations directed at heterosexual conduct.[16]

In April 2022, former Justice Dhanidina joined the California defense firm Werksman, Jackson & Quinn LLP.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 Gurza, Agustin (August 3, 2016). "Faith in the Law: As California's first Muslim judge, Halim Dhanidina '94 wants to be known not for his religion, but for his belief in the American legal system". Pomona College Magazine. Claremont, California. Archived from the original on August 10, 2016. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
  2. ↑ Hubbell, Martindale (March 2001). Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory: California (A-R, Volume 2, 2001). Martindale-Hubbell. ISBN 9781561604395.
  3. ↑ United States Public Records, 1970-2009 (California, 2003-2007)
  4. 1 2 Mills, James (8 April 2022). "Former Calif. Appellate Justice Joins Werksman Jackson - Law360". www.law360.com. LexisNexis.
  5. 1 2 "Governor Brown Appoints Eight to Los Angeles County Superior Court" (Press release). Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. 2012-05-18. Retrieved 2012-12-26.
  6. ↑ Jill Leovy. "Faith informs work of state's first Muslim judge". la times. Retrieved 19 October 2015. His parents left Tanzania for Illinois before he was born. The family is Ismaili, a Shiite tradition that represents a progressive strand within Islam....Their tradition bears little resemblance to the media images of Muslims that bombarded Dhanidina through childhood. The Muslims he knew were "not here to change American society," he said. "They are here to be part of it. They buy in." But Dhanidina, who is of Gujarati Indian heritage, learned early to keep quiet when people talked of Islam. "It was always in a context that would make me defensive," he said.
  7. ↑ Sunita Sohrabji. "Brown Appoints California's First Muslim Superior Court Judge". indiawest.com. Retrieved 19 October 2015. The Chicago-born, Evanston, Ill.,-raised Dhanidina, whose Gujarati parents Lutaf and Mali emigrated from Tanzania to the U.S., in 1960, said that his 14 years as a deputy district attorney and being in court nearly every day have made him intimately familiar with how a courtroom works, including the rules that govern a trial.
  8. ↑ "US First Muslim Superior Court Judge". www.onislam.net. Retrieved 20 October 2015. CAIRO – In a major leap for the Muslim minority in the United States, a Muslim attorney was appointed to a California Superior Court judgeship, to be the first Muslim American on a California bench... Born in Chicago, Dhanidina is the son of Gujarati parents who emigrated from Tanzania to the US in 1960. A founding member of the Association of South Asian Prosecutors, Dhanidina spent 14 years as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney.
  9. ↑ Website - Asia Pacific American Bar Association
  10. ↑ "Halim Dhanidina". Whittier Law School. Retrieved 2012-12-26.
  11. ↑ Sohrabji, Sunita (2012-06-08). "Brown Appoints California's First Muslim Superior Court Judge". IndiaWest.com. Retrieved 2012-12-26.
  12. ↑ "US First Muslim Superior Court Judge". OnIslam.net. 2012-06-09. Retrieved 2012-12-26.
  13. 1 2 3 "Division Three: Justice Halim Dhanidina". Archived from the original on 2019-09-02. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  14. ↑ "Dhanidina, Halim | UCLA Law". law.ucla.edu.
  15. ↑ "Halim Dhanidina resume" (PDF). California Courts. State of California.
  16. ↑ Queally, James (April 29, 2016). "Judge slams gay sex stings by Long Beach police, calling them discriminatory". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
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