Justice Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian to Receive the 2025 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Ninth Circuit

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian has been selected to receive the prestigious 2025 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Ninth Circuit. Bamattre-Manoukian has been an associate justice for the California Court of Appeal’s Sixth Appellate District since 1989. She will receive the award from Chief Judge Mary H. Murguia and Judge Consuelo M. Callahan at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference.

Bamattre-Manoukian is also a past president of the Honorable William A. Ingram American Inn of Court, whose members cited her devotion to mentoring others in nominating her for the award. “I once heard her speak at a mentoring program about how people had extended a hand to her in reaching her professional goals and how she decided that she would conduct herself in the same way by always extending a hand back to help others,” writes Judge Helen E. Williams, current president of the Ingram Inn of Court, who nominated Bamattre-Manoukian. “She lives that commitment.” A member of the Ingram Inn since 1999, Bamattre-Manoukian served as the Inn’s president from 2006 to 2008. She has served as an Executive Committee member for more than two decades.

Bamattre-Manoukian began her career as a deputy district attorney in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, becoming one of the first women to prosecute homicides in that office. After just six years, she became a judge for the Orange County Municipal Court. After relocating to the Bay Area in 1985, she was appointed to the Santa Clara County Municipal Court. She was then elevated to the Santa Clara County Superior Court in 1988 and served as the court’s family law supervising judge in 1989. That year, the governor appointed her to her role as an associate justice of the California Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District, making her the court’s first woman justice.

Bamattre-Manoukian cochaired the Santa Clara County Bar Association’s Appellate Courts Committee with Judge Williams from 2004 to 2005. In that role, she created many education programs to fill a gap in appellate specialization education credits.

Bamattre-Manoukian earned an undergraduate degree in political science and psychology from the University of California Los Angeles in 1972, then earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California in 1974. She earned her law degree in 1977 from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. She also has a doctorate in public administration from the University of Southern California, which she was awarded in 1989.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes more than 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 350 chapters nationwide. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.