OC Superior Court Judge Erick L. Larsh Named OC Family Law Judicial Officer of the Year

The Southern California Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), the nation’s foremost organization promoting excellence in the practice of family law, honored Orange County Superior Court Judge Erick L. Larsh, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Hank M. Goldberg, and San Diego Superior Court Commissioner William Y. Wood as “Family Law Judicial Officers of the Year” at a black-tie awards dinner on Saturday, January 16, 2016, at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, California. In addition to honoring the three preeminent Southland jurists, attorney Dawn Gray was named “Family Law Person of the Year.”

“We are very proud to honor these pillars of matrimonial law for their outstanding contributions to the field,” said 2016 Institute Dean Stephen J. Wagner, partner at Dick & Wagner in Sacramento and San Diego, CA, and an AAML Southern California Chapter Board Member.

Chapter President Emily Edelman, principal of Law Office of Emily Edelman, notes, “Judge Hank M. Goldberg was named Los Angeles County’s Family Law Judicial Officer of the Year; Judge Erick L. Larsh was honored as Orange County’s Family Law Judicial Officer of the Year; and Commissioner William Y. Wood received accolades as San Diego Family Law Judicial Officer of the Year.”

The dinner was the cornerstone of the AAML chapter’s 23rd Annual Trial Advocacy Institute, “The Art of Examination at Trial and Deposition,” a three-day continuing legal education symposium that ran January 16-18. Designed for family law specialists and practitioners, the Institute featured more than a dozen legal experts who provided an in-depth focus on taking, defending and using depositions at trial.

Judge Larsh was appointed to the Orange County Superior Court bench in 1997 as a Commissioner. In 2005 when Governor Schwarzenegger made his first round of appointments to the Orange County bench, Judge Larsh was appointed to a judicial position. April 2016 will mark Judge Larsh’s 18th year on the bench.

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, son of Army private with roots in Santa Ana, California, Judge Larsh entered the United States at 11 months of age, the first born of 4 boys, all growing up in Yorba Linda, California.

He graduated from Troy High School in Fullerton and attended California State University Fullerton with a dual major in Psychology and Criminal Justice. He worked full time in the winters as a youth director with a local church and lived on a houseboat during the summer teaching water skiing.

His father died while he was in college, and he found himself working full time to help support his mother and three younger brothers. The Criminal Justice major was an afterthought in college after taking an interim session his junior year, which set his focus on the law. After graduating from CSUF, and still working full time, Judge Larsh decided to apply to the part time program at Western State University College of Law. In 1987 he graduated in the top 5% of the class, took the February bar, passed, and was sworn in as an attorney.

Judge Larsh accepted a position with the Anaheim City Attorney’s Office in the criminal prosecution unit. He tried 48 jury trials in just 18 months, which at that time was a record. When Judge Larsh was offered part of the indigent criminal defense contract with Orange County, he opened his own office specializing in criminal defense and litigation.

A few interesting notes regarding Judge Larsh’s legal career:

• His grandfather, Delbert Larsh, was the president of the Orange County Bar Association in 1957.
• As a Commissioner, Judge Larsh wrote a grant and was awarded $365,000 to start the North Orange County Drug Court program;
• Judge Larsh taught criminal law at CSUF and for 15 years he was an adjunct professor at Biola University teaching a course in criminology and a course in the law and science of juvenile delinquency.
• He was the supervising judge for the domestic violence courts, the drug courts, West Justice Center and Central Justice Center.
• He has also taught on the subjects of Domestic Violence and drug laws at the Bernard Witkin Judicial College.
• He is the Vice Chair of the Governing Board of the Community Services Project, the organization administering the victim witness program in Orange County.
• After supervising a justice center, a judge has the pick of assignments that he/she would prefer. Judge Larsh chose a family law assignment because of it’s dynamic, fast paced, direct calendar.
• In his time on the bench, he has served both on the civil and criminal panels. Judge Larsh will tell you that the most difficult and time demanding assignment for a judge is in the family law courts. It has also, for him, been one of the most rewarding assignments of his career.
• He will also tell you the collegiality among his fellow family law judges is unmatched in any other branch of the courts. This has been his greatest pleasure while sitting on the family law bench.
  
  

Away from the bench:

• He is active in his church, his community and with his many friends.
• He is the Head Coach for the Foothill High School Mountain Bike team.
• In each of the last 14 summers, Judge Larsh has spent time with family and friends on houseboats on Lake Powell, wake-boarding, skiing, jet-skiing, and forgetting the cares of the court.