The Catholic Bar Association of Los Angeles

Closing Speaker for 2024 Red Mass Announced

Hon. Carolyn B. Kuhl Closing Speaker for 42nd Annual Red Mass LA

We are thrilled to announce that Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl will be the Closing Judicial Speaker for the 42nd Annual Red Mass in Los Angeles on October 23, 2024.

Judge Kuhl presides in a Complex Civil Litigation Department of the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles. She previously served as the Presiding Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court in 2015 and 2016; as Assistant Presiding Judge in 2013 and 2014; and as Supervising Judge of the Civil Departments from 2011 to 2012 and from 2003 to 2004. She was a founding judge of the Complex Civil Litigation Program and has served as a judge in that program for more than 10 years. She served on the California Judicial Council, the policy-making body for the California state court system, from 2006 through 2009.

Judge Kuhl is a Lecturer in Law at UCLA Law School where she teaches a course titled “Civil Procedure in Practice – Problems and Reforms.” Judge Kuhl currently is a member of the Council of the American Law Institute and sits on the Executive Committee. She is also Vice-Chair of the Board of Advisers of the Institute for Civil Justice of the RAND Corporation. 

In 2017, the Chief Justice of the United States appointed Judge Kuhl to serve on the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States (the Standing Committee on Federal Rules). She is the first state trial judge to serve on that Committee. She served on the Governing Council for the American Bar Association Center for Innovation from 2017-2021 and was the Council Vice-Chair from 2019-2021.

Prior to her appointment to the bench in 1995, Judge Kuhl was a partner in the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson. From 1981 through 1986 she served in various positions in the United States Department of Justice, including as Principal Deputy Solicitor General. Judge Kuhl was a law clerk to the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy when he sat as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She holds a JD degree from Duke University School of Law, where she served on the Duke Law Journal, and an AB degree from Princeton University.
Judge Kuhl is married to the Honorable William F. Highberger who also sits as a judge of the Los Angles Superior Court. They have two married daughters, one a data scientist and the other a human resources professional.

Join us at the 42nd Annual Red Mass, on October 23, 2024 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Downtown Los Angeles.