Candidate for
Justice, California State Court of Appeal; District 1, Division 1

Justice Kathleen Banke was appointed to the First District Court of Appeal, Division One, in June 2009, and was confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments on July 30, 2009.

Prior to her appointment, Justice Banke sat on the Alameda County Superior Court, to which she was appointed in June 2006 and was elected in 2008. While on the superior court, she was one of three judges appointed to the superior court's Appellate Division and was an elected member of the court's Executive Committee.

Justice Banke currently serves as chair of the Administrative Office of the Court's Center for Judicial Education and Research's Appellate Practice Curriculum Committee, which is responsible for setting the statewide curriculum for continuing education for all appellate justices and appellate court staff attorneys. She also serves on the statewide Judicial Council Kleps Award Committee, which recognizes and makes awards for innovative trial and appellate court programs.

Before being appointed to the bench, Justice Banke was an appellate lawyer for more than twenty years, first with Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May and then, through a merger, with Reed Smith LLP. For many years she was the practice group leader of the Crosby, Heafey statewide, and then the Reed Smith nationwide, Appellate Practice Group, and represented clients in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the Ninth Circuit, the California Supreme Court, and all districts of the California Court of Appeal. She was counsel of record or co-counsel on more than 200 appeals and writs, many of which resulted in published opinions. She was a certified specialist in appellate law by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization, was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and was an active member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers. In the years immediately prior to her appointment to the bench, she was named by the East Bay Times as one of the "Top East Bay Attorneys" (2006), listed in "The Best Lawyers in America" (2005) and named as a "Super Lawyer" in the Bar Area in the field of appellate law and among the "Top 50" women attorneys in the Bay Area (2004 and 2005).

Justice Banke has written numerous articles on civil appellate and writ practice. She is the chief consulting editor of and a contributing author to California Civil Writ Practice (CEB 4th ed. 2008), and a contributing author to California Civil Appellate Practice (CEB 3d ed. 1996), Employment Litigation (TRG 2001), and Federal Civil Trials and Evidence (TRG 2000). Justice Banke served as a practitioner-advisor in appellate advocacy at Boalt Hall School of Law for three years, and before that as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law at Hastings College of the Law for three years teaching civil appellate advocacy. She continues to teach continuing legal education programs and to serve as a moot court judge for local law schools and other moot court competitions.

Justice Banke has been married to her husband, Paul, for more than thirty years. They have two children.