JUDGE JUDY HOLZER HERSHER, Ret.

Judge Judy Holzer Hersher, Ret., has two decades of experience on the Sacramento County bench, presiding over hundreds of jury and court trials. She has published numerous articles and books, taught at law school programs and the California Judicial College, and served on critical statewide trial committees. She has training in national and global mediation and three-plus years of mediation, arbitration, and private judging.
While on the bench, she served on the California Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions (CACI) for nine years and co-authored the California Civil Jury Instruction Companion Handbook published by Thomson Reuters/Westlaw for 5 years. She also served eight years on the California State Federal Judicial Council by appointment of the Chief Justices of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She taught trial management skills and evidence at the Bernard Witkin California Judicial College, the Center for Judiciary Education and Research (CJER), Civil Law Institutes, New Judge Orientation, numerous bar associations, and the American Board of Trial Attorneys (ABOTA). She was a contributing editor to the California Judges Benchbooks on Civil Proceedings Before Trial, Discovery, and Civil Proceedings During and After Trial, and E-Discovery at the Georgetown Law Advanced eDiscovery Institute in Washington, D.C. She also served on the California Standing Committee on Gender, Race, Religious and Ethnic Fairness for the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, and the California Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Access and Fairness.
Judge Hersher’s expertise spans a wide range of legal areas, including personal injury, trade secrets, partnerships, governance breaches, fraud, employment matters, and civil rights. She has a reputation for finding creative solutions to complex legal problems. This skill, coupled with her extensive experience, equips her to handle a variety of cases as a mediator, neutral case evaluator, and arbitrator for Judicate West. Her ability to think creatively has earned her praise from litigants, and she is known for her versatility and adaptability in mediation and arbitration cases.
Judge Hersher's professional achievements have been recognized through numerous awards and accolades. She received the 2021 Leonard M. Friedman Bar Association Award, the 2017 Sacramento Region ABOTA Trial Judge of the Year Award, the 2015 Capital City Trial Lawyers Association Judge of the Year Award, and the 2012 Sacramento County Bar Trial Judge of the Year. She has also been honored with the Sacramento County Bar Humanitarian of the Year Award in 2003, the Justice Frances Newell Carr Award for the Advancement of the Rights of Women and Children in 2003, and the Bayard Rustin Award for Civil Rights in 1995.
Judge Hersher has been actively sharing her insights and expertise through various platforms. In 2024, she presented at the ABA National Annual Conference on Dispute Resolution in San Diego, the Association of Defense Counsel Annual Meeting in San Francisco, a Women Lawyers of Sacramento lunchtime seminar on mediation skills, a 2024 Sacramento County Bar Association CLE on mediation, and in a statewide Judicate West Zoom presentation on Business Mediations. Her most recent publication, “Emotional Demolition During Mediation…And a Plan for Reconstruction,” was the feature article in 2024 SACRAMENTO LAWYER, Vol. 2-2024, providing valuable insights into her approach. An earlier article, “Global Disputes: Lessons for Everyday Mediations and Mediators,” was the feature article in the SACRAMENTO LAWYER | Vol. 2-2023 (August 2023).
A prodigious writer, the Sacramento County Bar has published many of her 2008-2015 articles in book format at https://issuu.com/milenkovlais/docs/judge_judy_hersher_article_collecti/1.