The Hon. Leondra R. Kruger

Leondra R. Kruger is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California.  She took office in January 2015 and was retained by voters in November 2018.  Before joining the court, Kruger worked in the United States Department Justice as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, as an Assistant to the Solicitor General, and as an Acting Deputy Solicitor General.  During her time in the Department of Justice, Kruger twice received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service and argued twelve cases on behalf of the United States in the United States Supreme Court.  Kruger had previously worked in private practice, where she specialized in appellate and Supreme Court litigation, and taught as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

Kruger received an A.B. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was an Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal. Following graduation, she served as a law clerk to Judge David S. Tatel of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and to Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court.

Kruger was elected to The American Law Institute in 2016. She is a member of the Appellate Advisory Committee of the Judicial Council of California, the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and the Board of Directors of the John Paul Stevens Foundation.