By Gwyneth K. Shaw
Joni Hiramoto ’87 has seen a lot in 28 years on the Contra Costa County Superior Court bench. With the climate for judges becoming increasingly fraught, she’s prioritized her passions as a jurist: pursuing justice in her courtroom while paving the way for new generations of judges, lawyers, and students.
Hiramoto arrived at Berkeley Law during the tumultuous fight over tenure denials for two beloved professors — Eleanor Swift and Marjorie Shultz — and found both of them to be inspiring teachers.
“I credit her with my understanding of contracts,” Hiramoto says of Shultz. “It was shocking that this incredibly smart and capable woman didn’t have the full support of the faculty when it came to tenure allegedly because her published works were in the area of family law.”
Hiramoto also highlights longtime Professor and Law Librarian Robert Berring ’74 for helping her “find the law” as a student. The skills he imparted, at the dawn of the Westlaw age, helped her notch a nugget of information that nobody else could find as a young attorney.
“My reputation was bolstered because I had found something where someone else hadn’t, and it was directly attributable to the skills Professor Berring taught us in Advanced Legal Research,” she says.
Berring was more than a brilliant professor, Hiramoto adds: He was a great example for stressed-out law students.
“To be so human and hilarious and keep us grounded, he was an invaluable inspiration,” she says. “He helped us deal with the stress of law school and to stay focused on what mattered to us.”
An East Bay native, Hiramoto practiced at McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before then-Gov. Pete Wilson appointed her to the bench in 1998. She was inspired to join the SEC in part due to her experience taking Securities from Larry W. Sonsini ’66, “in which he combined his passion for the law with an absolute mastery of the subject.”
“One could not imagine a better grounding in Securities Law than the one he provided,” Hiramoto says. “I went from defending against securities class action cases to prosecuting securities law violations. I loved my time at the SEC, and would never have left it but for the call of the judiciary.”
Giving back
She became involved with the Center for Youth Development through Law (CYDL), a mock trial and summer internship program for local high school students from low-income and underrepresented backgrounds. They come to Berkeley Law for courses incorporating critical thinking, communication skills, legal empowerment, and social justice, while spending four days a week at full-time law-related offices
More than 95% of CYDL students attend college, at least 30 alumni have pursued advanced degrees, eight alumni have become members of the California Bar, and three are currently attending law school — including 3L Khiari Neal, the first from the group to attend Berkeley Law.
Now the ex-officio chair of CYDL’s board, Hiramoto tries to foster the same encouraging mindset she had as a high school student in Richmond: Work hard and you can do anything.
“I see that happening in CYDL,” she says. “And that’s what I love, giving them the confidence that they are as good as anyone, that if they put in the work, they can succeed.”
With judges at all levels under an unprecedented level of pressure — and often vitriol from politicians — Hiramoto also channels her energy into education as the current dean of California’s Bernard E. Witkin Judicial College, which helps new jurists meet educational requirements mandated by the state.
Last year, Hiramoto was named Contra Costa County Trial Court Judge of the Year by the Alameda-Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association. In 2024, she received the California Judges Association’s Bernard S. Jefferson Award for distinguished service in judicial education.
She’s proud of recent additions to the Witkin curriculum — including a role-playing workshop on socioeconomic fairness to help new judges recognize and check bias against litigants with limited resources.
A judge might read a defendant who fails to complete free, court-mandated Alcoholics Anonymous meetings as lazy or disrespectful, Hiramoto says. But that person might have needed to work long hours to avoid eviction or lack a means of transportation. Shifting the viewpoint better equips judges to avoid making assumptions based on stereotypes about the litigants in front of them, and is a key component to building a more just system.
“A driving theme that’s propelled me through my legal career is that government abuse is not going to happen on my watch,” says Hiramoto, whose grandparents, parents, and other family members were interned during World War II. “For me, one of the best ways to ensure justice everywhere is to educate judges about explicit and implicit bias, to be aware of it, and figure out how to deal with it.
“The theme of the college was ‘Justitia Omnibus’ — ‘Justice for All.’ I hope new judges will intentionally plan how they’re going to make that real in their own courtrooms.”
Just as with her work for CYDL, she draws strength and optimism from seeing future leaders grow into new roles.
“There were 120 judges at this year’s session, and if they are any indication of the quality of the new judges in the state, the future is extremely bright,” she says.