Governor nominates 5 appellate justices, 2 from his office

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced the nomination of five people to the Court of Appeal, including two members of his staff, and the appointment of two Superior Court judges.

Brian Goldman, a chief deputy legal affairs secretary in Newsom's office and former Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe partner, was nominated to the 1st District Court of Appeal, Division 2, to replace Justice Marla J. Miller, who is retiring Oct. 2.

Before joining the governor's office in 2021, Goldman clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt and worked as an appellate attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division.

Judge Adam Hofmann

At Orrick, he represented Microsoft Corp. in its 2nd Circuit fight against a U.S. warrant seeking customer emails stored in Ireland -- a case the Supreme Court later found moot after Congress enacted the CLOUD Act, which addressed government access to electronic data stored overseas. He also represented Gilead Sciences Inc. in a Federal Circuit patent dispute over its hepatitis C drug.

Adam Hofmann, the governor's deputy judicial appointments secretary and a longtime Hanson Bridgett partner, was nominated to the 1st District, Division 4, filling the seat vacated by Justice Tracie Brown's elevation to presiding justice.

Hofmann spent 17 years at Hanson Bridgett, rising to partner and co-chair of its appellate practice. A State Bar-certified appellate specialist, he argued before the 9th Circuit and every California Court of Appeal and filed merits briefs in two U.S. Supreme Court cases. He previously chaired the State Bar's Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation, which vets judicial candidates.

Judge Alexander Giza

In the 2nd District, Division 3, Newsom nominated two sitting Los Angeles County Superior Court judges: Alexander Giza, a judge since 2019 and former Hueston Hennigan and Russ August & Kabat partner, to replace Justice Anne H. Egerton, who is retiring Oct. 11; and Cindy Pánuco, a judge since 2024 and former Public Counsel executive, to fill the seat created by Justice Rashida Adams' elevation to presiding justice.

Giza, an electrical engineer before law school, co-founded Hueston Hennigan and filed a Supreme Court amicus brief on behalf of six former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office commissioners in Microsoft v. i4i, defending a patent-invalidity evidentiary standard the Court unanimously upheld. He currently handles family law at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse.

Pánuco, as a civil rights attorney at Hadsell Stormer & Renick, was part of the legal team in Rodriguez v. City of Los Angeles, a class action in which a federal court found the city had violated the civil rights of more than 5,600 people served with gang-injunction curfews. The settlement created a $30 million jobs and education fund. She later ran Public Counsel's legal, policy and litigation programs as vice president and chief programs officer.

Judge Cindy Pánuco

Maria Daghlian Hernandez, an Orange County Superior Court judge since 2009 and former senior deputy public defender, was nominated to the 4th District, Division 3, to succeed Justice Maurice Sanchez, who is retiring Oct. 2. Daghlian Hernandez completed her three-year term as presiding judge of Orange County Superior Court this year.

As presiding judge of the county's juvenile division from 2014 to 2018, she created a specialized court for sexually trafficked children and more recently launched a special court for young adults facing felony charges.

Newsom also appointed two Superior Court judges. Thomas Nocella, a senior deputy in the Orange County Alternate Public Defender's Office, was appointed to the Orange County Superior Court, filling the vacancy left by Judge Juliet Macaulay's elevation to the Court of Appeal. Chhaya Malik, deputy director of dispute resolution at the California Civil Rights Department and a former Hogan Lovells associate, was appointed to the Santa Clara County Superior Court, succeeding retired Judge Socrates P. Manoukian.