Presiding Justice Kathleen E. O’Leary of the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Three will retire on July 31, 2025, after nearly 44 years of judicial service.
A Massachusetts native, Justice O’Leary’s family moved to California before she started high school. She graduated from Loyola Marymount University and received her juris doctor degree from Southwestern University School of Law. Following law school, Justice O’Leary worked for the Orange County Public Defender’s office for five years,
Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., appointed Justice O’Leary to the West Orange County Municipal Court on October 2, 1981. Governor George Deukmejian then appointed her to the Orange County Superior Court five years later. In 1997, her colleagues elected her Presiding Judge of the Orange County Superior Court, making her the first woman in Orange County to hold that position. She was reelected to that position two more times. While serving as Presiding Judge, Justice O’Leary oversaw the unification of the county’s superior and municipal courts.
In 1999, Governor Gray Davis appointed Justice O’Leary to serve as an Associate Justice on the, Fourth Appellate District, Division Three, and in 2011, following his return to office, was appointed by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., to serve as Presiding Justice.