Cindy Seeley Hendrickson is a judge of the

Santa Clara County Superior Court The Superior Court of California for and in the County of Santa Clara is the state trial court in and for Santa Clara County, California. History San Jose was chosen as the initial site for the state's capitol in 1849, which it held until 185 ...

. Raised in Alexandria, Virginia, Hendrickson went on to earn her

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1987 and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

where she served as the president of a student organization that provided

pro bono ( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...

legal help for the poor. During her time in law school, she served a clerkship for attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. At the conclusion of law school, she then joined Thornton, Taylor, Downs, Becker, Tolson, and Doherty law firm in 1990 as a

civil trial In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or di ...

attorney. In 1995, Hendrickson began working for Santa Clara County's District Attorney's Office. During her employment, she acted in supervisory roles at the Palo Alto Courthouse and the District Attorney's Family Violence Unit. During her tenure in the District Attorney's office, she served on its Domestic Violence Death Review Team as well as its Sexual Assault Team. She additionally launched the Santa Clara County Financial Abuse Specialist Team in 1999 serving in the Elder Fraud Unit and chairing the Elder Death Review Team. In 2011, Hendrickson was named supervising deputy district attorney and subsequently assistant district attorney for the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office where she worked for 23 years before her election to the Superior Court in 2018. In October 2017, she launched a campaign to replace Judge

Aaron Persky Michael Aaron Persky (born 1962) is an American attorney and former judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court from 2003 to 2018. In 2016, Persky gained attention after his ruling in the case ''People v. Turner'', in which he sentenced St ...

. He was recalled due to his controversial sentence in

People v. Turner ''People v. Turner'', formally ''The People of the State of California v. Brock Allen Turner'' (2015), was a criminal case in which Brock Allen Turner was convicted by jury trial of three counts of felony sexual assault. On January 18, 2015, o ...

. On June 5, 2018, Hendrickson was elected by voters to serve the four years remaining of Persky's term. Hendrickson has a background specifically in victim advocacy, and has prior experience as a prosecutor. She has also sat on the board of directors for the St. Thomas More Society of Santa Clara County and the St.

Vincent de Paul Vincent de Paul, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), commonly known as Saint Vincent de Paul, was an Occitan French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor. In 1622, Vincent was appointed as chaplain to the galleys. ...

. Hendrickson is a recipient of the Robert Webb Award for Misdemeanor Trial Advocacy and the Clay Haupert Award for Excellence from the Office of District Attorney of Santa Clara County.

References

California lawyers American women judges 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers Stanford University alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers {{US-judge-stub

See also

References