Gordon Baranco '72 Honored, Featured in Bar Journal
The Honorable Gordon S. Baranco '72, an Alameda County Superior Court judge, was honored for his dedication to increasing equal opportunity and access to justice with the 2009 Benjamin Aranda III Access to Justice Award last month, prompting an article in the January 2010 California Bar Journal.
The award, named for Los Angeles Municipal Court Judge Benjamin Aranda III, honors a California trial judge, appellate court justice or commissioner who deserves recognition for improving access to the judicial system, especially for low- and moderate-income Californians.
Baranco worked in public interest law and for Alameda County and the state before his appointment to the municipal court in 1980, and was elevated to the superior court by Governor George Deukmejian in 1984. He has presided over Alameda County's Homeless/Caring Court since it began in 2004, holding court in soup kitchens, drug treatment centers, and church halls in order to bring people who tend to avoid courts into the system.