ABOUT THE HON. HAARIS M. SYED:

Judge Syed was appointed to the Los Angeles County Superior Court in June 2026 by Governor Gavin Newsom after serving as the first Muslim and Pakistani-American Commissioner of the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Before joining the bench, Judge Syed was a Deputy Public Defender at the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office for 20 years. During that time, he served as a capital case litigator, a trainer for over 115 new attorneys in the misdemeanor training program on all aspects of criminal defense and trial work, and also as the deputy in charge of the Torrance branch office, supervising attorneys while also handling the most difficult, serious, and violent criminal cases as a Grade IV Deputy Public Defender. He tried over 100 jury trials and juvenile adjudications and was honored with the Judy Schecter Award by the Los Angeles County Public Defenders Association for Juvenile Attorney of the Year.

He was an associate at Augustini & Wheeler in business litigation from 2004 to 2005. His public interest work includes assisting neglected and abused children at Dependency Court Legal Services, the ACLU of Southern California, Public Counsel Law Center’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, and at the civil rights firm of Litt & Associates.

Judge Syed received his B.A. in Comparative Literature and Philosophy from the University of California, Irvine and earned his J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, where he was Chief Developments Editor for the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, invited to the Scott Moot Court Honors Board and recipient of the South Asian Bar Association’s Public Interest Scholarship.

He was the co-founder, Secretary and President-Elect of the Middle Eastern South Asian Public Defender Association, speaker for Project LEAD, speaker and scorer for Teach Democracy’s Mock Trial Competition, speaker for Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Dialogues on Freedom, selection committee judge and speaker for the Islamic Scholarship Fund, instructor for the Sierra Club’s Wilderness Travel Course, and instructor for the Art & Wilderness Institute leading backpacking trips and youth leadership camps.

Judge Syed currently presides over family law cases in the Stanley Mosk Courthouse.