Los Angeles County Superior Court Judicial
Officer Cynthia Loo has been on the Superior
Court bench for more than eight years. She
currently hears juvenile criminal / juvenile
delinquency cases in the Eastlake Juvenile Court
in East Los Angeles. Prior to that she was
assigned to the Compton courthouse for
approximately three years where she heard both
juvenile criminal and family law matters.
Being a good judge is more than just locking up
criminals -- a judge is a public servant and
must treat all who come before him or her with
respect, patience and fairness. In an article in
which she was profiled in "LA Youth," it
concluded, "One day in one court isn't enough
for me to understand the whole court system, but
by the time we left, I had learned a lot about
the mercy a judge can have. Judge Loo wasn't
only fair; she was respectful, and she wanted to
help teenagers live meaningful lives."
In January 2005 she received “Juvenile Court
Judge of the Year” from the Los Angeles County
Juvenile Court’s Bar Association. On April 26,
2008, the
noted “she earns high marks from
attorneys on all sides for her handling of
juvenile cases,….Loo is an asset to juvenile
court, an assignment that ought to be highly
sought but seldom is.” Cynthia has been a
volunteer law professor at the People's College
of Law (PCL) for the past three years. Aimed at
addressing inequities in law and society, PCL is
a non-profit law school that trains socially
conscious community lawyers and was opened in
part to give those historically denied access to
legal training, such as working people, women,
and people of color, an opportunity to go to law
school. Tuition is affordable because PCL's
professors donate their salaries back to the law
school and are essentially unpaid volunteers.
While in law school, Cynthia was a legal intern
at AYUDA, a non-profit agency assisting
low-income individuals in immigration, domestic
violence, and landlord tenant matters. She also
was a law clerk at the ACLU. Following her
graduation from USC in 1990, she was a law clerk
for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
After passing the bar, Cynthia worked for
several years representing abused and neglected
children in juvenile dependency matters for the
Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles.
Prior to getting on the bench full-time, she
also volunteered with the Legal Aid Foundation
of Los Angeles’s Unlawful Detainer Equal Access Project, as well as the Los Angeles County Bar
Barristers Domestic Violence Project.
She continues to be extremely involved in many
women and minority bar associations. Currently
she is on the Governing Boards of the California
Asian-Pacific American Judges Association; the
Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles (WLALA),
where she is co-chair of the Criminal Justice;
the Asian Pacific American Bar Association (APABA)
and the Asian Pacific American Women's Law
Alliance (APAWLA). She was formerly on the State
Bar's Access and Fairness Standing Committee on
Women in the Law and the well regarded Court's
Working Group of the State Bar's Diversity
Pipeline Task Force.
Cynthia also been requested to submit articles
to judicial magazines such as
Gavel to
Gavel , the Los Angeles
County Superior Court's Judicial Magazine; and
The
Bench , the official
magazine of the California Judge's Association.
Most recently,
Los Angeles
Law yer,
the publication of the LA County Bar, requested
she contribute an article re diversity on the
bench. She has been asked by the Los Angeles
County Superior Court and other groups to speak
regarding domestic violence, gang violence,
California “Three Strikes” Law, juvenile
justice, teaching law, diversity in the legal
profession and diversity on the bench.
The distinguishing feature of her background is
not only the extensive judicial experience she
has gained over the eight years of being on the
bench, but a demonstrated extensive history of
community service and trying to make a
difference.
Cynthia was born in Los Angeles, California. Her
parents Tom and Mona Loo currently reside in
Malibu, California. Cynthia’s father, and her
two younger sisters are all lawyers. All are
graduates of the University of Southern
California School of Law.