LaDoris Cordell has racked up quite a few firsts in her decades-spanning and groundbreaking legal career.
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In 1982, California Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her as the first Black woman judge to serve on any court in Northern California.
Then, six years later and after a successful election bid, she became the first Black superior court judge in Santa Clara County's history. After 19 years on the bench, she retired and worked at Stanford University as Vice Provost and Special Counselor to the President for Campus Relations until 2009.
But these firsts are more than mere historical footnotes.
As Cordell recounts in her newly released memoir "Her Honor: My Life on the Bench...What Works, What's Broken, and How to Change It," the background and life experience she brought to the bench equipped her to spot failings in the U.S. criminal justice system that many others had left unaddressed.
Cordell is a 1971 graduate of Antioch College and a 1974 graduate of Stanford Law School.
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