Judge Erica Yew
San Jose, CA
Appointed by the Judicial Council of California
Current Term Extends through June 30, 2030
Governor Gray Davis appointed Yew, a San Jose native, to the Santa Clara County Superior Court on October 2, 2001. Yew is the first Asian-American female to serve on this bench.
Yew was unanimously appointed by the California Supreme Court to the Committee on Judicial Ethics Opinions (CJEO) on May 1, 2019. She served on the California Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP) from December 2010 to April 2019 and chaired the CJP for two and a half years. From 2009 to 2012, Yew was a member of the California Judicial Council, which is the policymaking body of the California Courts. She returned to the Judicial Council in 2023 to 2024 as a member in her role as President of CJA. Yew was appointed in July 2014 to the Judicial Council’s Advisory Committee on Providing Access and Fairness (PAF) and served until September 2021. She has served on the California Access to Justice Commission (CATJC) since July 2014 and she co-founded and co-chairs the CATJC’s Racial Justice and Intersectionality Committee. Currently, Yew is a member of the board for the National Center for State Courts and chairs the Programs Committee. She is also the Immediate Past President of the California Judges Association (CJA), having served as only the sixth woman to lead the organization in 95 years. She co-chaired and co-founded the CJA Mindfulness and Wellness Committee and helped to create a website that is open for bench officers nationally to connect them with information to support professional wellness. She is also a co-chair of the California Judicial Mentor Program, a statewide judicial mentoring program jointly established by Governor Newsom, Judicial Appointment Secretary Luis Céspedes and the judiciary.
In addition to the law, community service is important to Yew. The following representative sample of Yew’s awards demonstrates her long-standing commitment to service. In 1990, the Santa Clara County Bar Association (SCCBA) named her Pro Bono Attorney of the Year. The California State Bar gave Yew the Wiley W. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services in 1991. In 1995, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and the Human Relations Commission conferred the Award of Special Merit upon Yew for her service to the community. Also in 1995, the Honorable Zoe Lofgren entered Yew’s name in the United States Congressional Record in recognition of her volunteer efforts. In January 2001, Yew won an award from the Avanti Foundation for her volunteerism. In March 2002, the Asian Law Alliance gave Yew its Distinguished Recognition Award. In November 2002, Yew received a Trailblazer Award from the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). In September 2003, Yew was recognized by the SCCBA Women Lawyers Committee. In January 2005, Yew received the SCCBA Justice Byrl R. Salsman Award for her long-term contributions to the legal profession. On March 14, 2005, Yew was named Woman of the Year for District 24 by California Assembly member Rebecca Cohen. In March 2006, Yew received the Juliette Gordon Low Award from the Girl Scouts of Santa Clara County. In May 2008, AACI gave a Community Star Award to Yew. In March 2009, the San Jose Business Journal named Yew a 2009 Women of Influence in the Silicon Valley. In July 2009, Yew received an Opening Doors to Justice Award from the Public Interest Clearinghouse, now known as One Justice. In November 2010, Yew received an Access to Justice Award from the Pro Bono Project for her work in the area of domestic violence. In November 2011, Yew received the Diversity Award from the SCCBA. In 2014, Yew received the prestigious John W. Gardner Leadership Award from the American Leadership Forum – Silicon Valley (ALF). The award is conferred upon community leaders who demonstrate ALF’s core values of diversity, inclusiveness, civility, engagement and respect. ALF is a national organization dedicated to training leaders to be better collaborative leaders for the common good. In 2015, Yew was named Trial Judge of the Year by the Santa Clara County Trial Lawyers Association. Also in 2015, Yew was honored by the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus for her contributions and impact in the field of Law. In 2016, Yew was named Outstanding Jurist of the Year by the Santa Clara County Bar Association and in 2017 Yew received the Legal Impact Award from Asian Law Alliance. Also in 2017, Yew received the Judicial Council’s Distinguished Service Award, one of the highest awards conferred in the California judicial branch. Yew is the 2023 recipient of the California Women Lawyers Rose Bird Memorial Award. Yew received a lifetime achievement award from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in March 2024. In March 2025, Yew will be honored by the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Board and receive a Behavioral Health Community Hero Award. Also in 2025, Yew will receive a Woman of Impact Award form Notre Dame High School and a Catalyst for Change Award from City Team Ministries.
Yew has taught on a number of topics that include judicial ethics, working with self represented litigants, elimination of bias, language access, and collaborative courts. She has instructed through the California Judicial Education and Research program (CJER), Children and Family Futures, the Rutter Group, California Judges Association, the National Center for State Courts/Center for Judicial Ethics, the National Judicial College, and the National Association of Drug Court Professionals among other entities. She has served on CJER’s Curriculum Working Group for QE6, 7, and 8. Her scripts were adopted and presented in QE7 and QE8 programs.
She is a Past President of the California Asian-American Judges Association (CAPAJA) and Past President of the NAPABA Judicial Council, which is the national association of Asian-American judicial officers. Yew has also served on the national board for ReSurge (formerly known as Interplast) which provides reconstructive cleft palette and burn surgeries globally, the Santa Clara County (SCC) Law Library Board, and the SCC Child Abuse Council. In 2008 and 2009, Yew chaired the Good Samaritan Hospital Board and served on the hospital’s Bioethics Committee. She is an American Leadership Forum (ALF) senior fellow, Class XV. Currently, she co-facilitates ALF’s AAPI Caucus. In 2008, 2009 and 2011, Yew chaired her court’s Community Outreach Committee, instituting both Girl Scouts Day at Court and Pre-Law Diversity Day; the latter is a program for which the California State Bar Association has prepared a tool kit to enable other courts to offer similar events. In 2006, Yew served on the California State Bar and Santa Clara County Bar Association Pipeline Task Forces on Diversity, helping to plan the state’s first judicial conference on the issue of diversity on the bench. She has also served on the Advisory Committee for the State Bar’s Leadership Academy, a project of the bar’s Office of Legal Services, Access and Fairness. Also in 2006, Yew established Santa Clara County’s first county-wide collaborative workshop program serving families dealing with domestic violence. This collaborative, known as Domestic Violence Information and Resources (DVIR), provided resource fairs and education for victims, perpetrators, and their children throughout the county in multiple languages and in multiple locations including homeless shelters, the jail, schools, and community centers for ten years.
As an attorney, Yew served as a District Three Representative on the California State Bar Board of Governors, now known as the California State Bar Board of Trustees. Yew is past President of the Asian Pacific Bar Association of the Silicon Valley. She has also served on the boards of the Pro Bono Project of Silicon Valley, the Asian Law Alliance, the Legal Aid Society, the Silicon Valley Campaign for Legal Services, and the SCCBA Board of Trustees. For that bar association, she co-chaired the Judiciary Committee and chaired the Minority Access Committee. In addition, Yew served on then Attorney General Lockyer’s Blue Ribbon Commission on SWAT Policies and Practices. She has also been on the board of Child Advocates of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties and served on the county Advisory Commission for the Children’s Shelter. She was a Child Advocate for ten years and volunteered through the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office to represent children in the dependency system. One of Yew’s advocate children is now a judge in Monroe County, New York, and is the first African American female jurist to serve on her court having been elected in November 2018. In 1994, Yew founded a monthly program for toddlers at the Agnews Family Living Center, a homeless shelter. As a volunteer and while practicing law, Yew coordinated this program for four years.
Yew received her undergraduate degree with honors from University of California at Berkeley in 1982 and her law degree from University of California College of Law, San Francisco, in 1985.