Hon. Judge Ana Maria Luna

Judge Ana Maria Luna obtained her undergraduate degrees in Biological Sciences and Spanish from the University of California, Irvine in 1981.  She graduated from the University of Southern California Gould Law School in 1984.  Judge Luna began practice as a family law attorney in the Southeast area of Los Angeles County from 1984 to 1989.  In 1990, she transitioned from family law to criminal defense work when she was hired by the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office.  She began her judicial career in October 1992 when selected by the Southeast District Municipal Court judges to serve as a court Commissioner.  In 1994, she ran for and won an open seat to that bench. She was the first Latina to serve in that municipal court district.  She became a Superior Court judge through unification in 2000.  Judge Luna has worked extensively with drug treatment issues in the criminal justice system. She was instrumental in the creation of a Drug Court program that served the Southeast District of the Los Angeles Superior Court. In 2000, she was chosen by the Board of Supervisors to chair the Prop. 36 Steering Committee for Los Angeles County in response to a voter initiative requiring treatment rather than incarceration as means to treat substance abusing defendants.  Judge Luna served as an associate with the VERA Institute and has advised other states as to the development of collaborative drug treatment programs.  She has served as faculty at the Judicial College (California) and at the National Judicial College (Reno).  She is a past president of the Latino Judges of California, and a past vice-president of the California Judges Association.  She served on the state Judicial Council from 1998 to 2001.  Judge Luna was assigned to a family law courtroom from 2014 to April 2020 where she heard child custody, support and financial issues in marital dissolution and parentage actions.  In April 2020, Judge Luna was reassigned to the Probate Division where she presided over a busy calendar court managing estate, trust, guardianship and conservatorship cases.  As of March 2022, she has been handling the long cause probate calendar.   Judge Luna has presented to the LA County Bar Association regarding minor’s counsel training (Family) and  litigating special immigrant juvenile findings (Family and Probate) as well as to the Southeast District Bar Association on cross-over issues in probate and family law.  Judge Luna likes to knit, read and walk/hike whenever she has the opportunity to do so.