Newsom names lesbian lawyer to Alameda bench

Governor Gavin Newsom has named a prominent lesbian attorney to a vacancy on the Alameda County Superior Court. Julie Wilensky is one of three female judicial appointees Newsom named Thursday to vacant seats on the East Bay bench.

A onetime senior staff attorney at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights when it was known as the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Wilensky is now with the San Francisco City Attorney’s office. She is a deputy city attorney on the complex and affirmative litigation team.

A Democrat who resides in Oakland with her family, Wilensky will fill the vacancy created by then-President Joe Biden’s appointment last year of Judge Noel Wise to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It is unclear when she will take her judicial oath and officially become a superior court judge, as her swearing-in date has yet to be set.

This isn’t the first time that Newsom has tapped Wilensky for a prominent role. In late 2020, he named her to the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Council.

Due to her being on vacation until August 11, Wilensky told the Bay Area Reporter she was unavailable for a phone interview. In an August 7 emailed reply to questions, she said she had applied for a gubernatorial appointment to be a judge last year and only learned about being selected shortly before the public announcement made by Newsom’s office.

“I want to become a judge to serve my local community in Alameda County, and to carry out the judiciary's goal of providing fair and equal access to justice for all Californians,” Wilensky told the B.A.R. “I'm grateful to the Governor for appointing me, and I look forward to working hard every day to earn and maintain the public's trust.”

 
This marks the second time a staff member from City Attorney David Chiu’s office has been named a judge by the governor over the four years Chiu has held the position. Chiu praised Wilensky’s selection in a statement to the B.A.R.

“We’re excited that another judge will be coming from the ranks of the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. Julie is a remarkable attorney, who has contributed significantly to our office’s successes on behalf of San Francisco,” stated Chiu. “While we will miss working with her, the people of California are gaining an outstanding jurist, with strong analytical skills, a deep sense of justice, and a fair temperament.”

Wilensky, 45, served on the board of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, the local LGBTQ bar association, in 2016 and 2017 as its secretary and amicus chair. Her board bio noted she was in her fourth year of serving on the BALIF board of directors at that time.

While at NCLR, she was involved in the case that made national headlines of an elderly lesbian couple in Missouri who had sued the senior housing community that allegedly denied renting them a unit after finding out they were married. In December 2020, the parties reached a confidential settlement to resolve the case, according to the legal nonprofit.

NCLR Vice President of Legal Shannon Minter has known Wilensky for 14 years, from her serving as a co-counsel on cases prior to working for the nonprofit to her time as a member of its staff and board. He had heard she applied to be a judge and told the B.A.R. in an August 8 phone interview that he “was just thrilled” to learn of her appointment.

“I am so proud and excited that someone of her caliber from our community has been appointed to the bench,” said Minter, a trans man, adding that there are “many reasons” for why he believes she will excel at being a judge. “I think what stands out to anyone who knows Julie is her integrity and sense of fairness. She is genuinely one of the most thoughtful and open-minded people I have ever met.”

Minter told the B.A.R. he knows Wilensky “will bring those qualities to the bench and that every single person who appears in front of her will receive a fair and compassionate hearing.”

Prior to joining NCLR in 2018, Wilensky served as a deputy county counsel at the Santa Clara County Counsel’s Office. She also previously worked as a senior counsel at Disability Rights California and as a director at the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, now known as Disability Law United.

Over a decade ago Wilensky was an associate at Lewis, Feinberg, Lee & Jackson, P.C. She became a shareholder in the local law firm in 2015.

In 2016, the Daily Journal named Wilensky as one of California’s Top 40 Lawyers Under 40 and Top Women Lawyers. The National LGBT Bar Association in 2015 had named her one of the Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40.

Wilensky clerked for Judge John T. Noonan Jr. at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals from 2009 to 2010 and for Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York from 2008 to 2009. A Thomas Emerson Fellow at David Rosen & Associates from 2007 to 2008, Wilensky received a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School.

While at Yale, in 2001, she met Rachel Claire Berger, a graphic designer who is vice provost at the California Institute of the Arts. The women had a civil union ceremony and a wedding in Connecticut in 2007.

“Due to the patchwork of laws recognizing same-sex relationships at the time, we also got married in Montreal, Canada in 2008,” recalled Wilensky, who has two kids with her wife.

The Alameda County Superior Court had 10 known LGBTQ judges serving on it as of the end of 2024, according to the latest demographic data for the state’s judges released earlier this year. The East Bay court for several years now has had the distinction of having the most LGBTQ judges of any county in Northern California.

Newsom filled two other vacancies on the court’s bench Thursday. He named Diane Meier, an appellate court attorney in the First District Court of Appeal, to the seat vacated by Judge Charles A. Smiley upon Newsom naming him last year to California’s First District Court of Appeal, Division One.

Deputy County Counsel Cara Sandberg for the Santa Clara County Counsel’s Office will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Ursula Jones Dickson. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors appointed Jones Dickson as district attorney earlier this year after voters recalled former DA Pamela Price last November.

Like Wilensky, Sandberg and Meier are both Democrats. All three will earn $244,727 as judges.