Hon. Kirk Nakamura was elected Presiding Judge, and Hon. Erick L. Larsh Assistant Presiding Judge in an uncontested election for the two top posts of the Superior Court of California, County of Orange. Both Judge Nakamura and Judge Larsh will begin their two-year terms on January 1, 2019.

Judge Nakamura has served as Assistant Presiding Judge since his election in January 2016. He was appointed by Governor Gray Davis as a judge of the Orange County Superior Court in 2001. Judge Nakamura graduated from Duke University School of Law with a Juris Doctor degree in 1980 and from the University of California, Irvine, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Science in 1977. He received the Outstanding Service Award from the Orange County Asian American Bar Association in 2008. He is a former President of the Orange County Japanese American Lawyers Association, Orange County Asian American Bar Association, the William P. Gray/Lex Legion Inn of Court and the California Asian Pacific American Judges Association. He was a board member of the Orange County Bar Association and the California Judges Association. He was awarded the Trailblazer Award from the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

Judge Larsh was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a judge of the Orange County Superior Court in 2005. He has served as Supervising Judge at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, as well as the West Justice Center in Westminster, and as Supervising Judge for the Domestic Violence Courts. He also served as the Chair of the Family Violence Coordination Committee. Before his appointment to the bench, he served as an Orange County Superior Court Commissioner from 1997 to 2005.

Judge Larsh graduated from Western State University of Law with a Juris Doctor degree in 1986 and from the California State University, Fullerton, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology in 1983. He received the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Southern California Section Judge of the Year Award (2016) and the Orange County Bar Association, Family Law Section J.E.T. Rutter Award for Outstanding Judicial Contribution to Family Law (2017).

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