California Superior Court Judge, Retired
My Life on the Bench — What Works, What’s Broken, How to Change It
LaDoris Hazzard Cordell is an American retired judge of the Superior Court of California and former Independent Police Auditor for the city of San Jose. She is an advocate for improving transparency into charges of police misconduct. She was assistant dean at the Stanford Law School, where she helped develop a program to increase minority recruitment. Within a year, Stanford Law School went from last to first place in enrollment of African-American and Hispanic students, among major law schools.
She was the first female African-American judge in Northern California and the first female African-American Superior Court judge in Santa Clara County, California. Her memoir, Her Honor: My Life on the Bench…What Works, What’s Broken, and How to Change It, was published in 2021.