Gay presiding judge brings experience to post

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Contra Costa County Presiding Judge Christopher Bowen sits on the bench in his courtroom in Martinez.
Photo: Cynthia Laird

Six months into his two-year term as the leader of the Contra Costa County Superior Court, Judge Christopher Bowen is navigating inhouse changes and factors that are somewhat beyond his control, like state funding. A gay man, Bowen is the second out presiding judge of the East Bay court and is praised by his colleagues for the smooth transition since he took the helm in January.

In a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter in his modest chambers at the Wakefield Taylor Courthouse in downtown Martinez, Bowen talked about his job and the fulfillment he has experienced as a Contra Costa County judge. Bowen, a Democrat, was appointed to the bench in October 2010 by Republican former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The actor-turned-politician was known for diversity in appointing judges; he named Contra Costa County’s first out judge, lesbian Rebecca Hardie, also a Democrat, to the bench eight months prior to Bowen’s selection.

“I’ve been on the bench for 15 years, and we have a lot of really good judges with different practice backgrounds,” Bowen said.

In fact, Bowen, 57, and Hardie were joined by a third out judge last year when Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Stephanie Clarke.

“He told me I’m the third member of the LGBTQ community on the Contra Costa bench,” Clarke, a lesbian, said of Bowen in a phone interview with the B.A.R. “It’s wonderful to have him as presiding judge.”

In the 2025 report on the number of out judges in California, there were seven bisexual judges, 48 gay jurists, and 32 lesbian members of the bench, based on those judges who answered the state’s sexual orientation and gender identity questions. There are two transgender judges. There were 1,326 heterosexual judges. Those who did not answer the SOGI  questions numbered 249. The report is an undercount of out judges, based on a count kept by the B.A.R., but did accurately count the trio of Contra Costa jurists from the LGBTQ community.

Clarke, 64, who started on the East Bay bench in July 2024, is currently assigned to the Richmond courthouse, where she hears misdemeanor criminal cases. She said that Newsom has also made diversity a priority in appointing state judges, while noting she’s at the upper end of the age range.

“There’s diversity across the entire spectrum,” she said.

Hardie served as presiding judge – the first out judge in the county to do so – amid the COVID pandemic in 2021 and 2022.

“Lucky me,” she quipped about having to oversee remote court proceedings and other challenges brought on by the pandemic.

Hardie, 63, is now the supervising judge of juvenile court, which handles juvenile justice and juvenile dependency cases, she said. The courthouse in Walnut Creek handles all juvenile cases except traffic, she explained.

She noted Schwarzenegger’s diverse picks for the bench.

“Although he was a Republican, he appointed across the aisle,” she said.

Over the years, Bowen, too, has handled a variety of assignments, including family and criminal courts. In fact, when he first started as presiding judge, he was in the middle of a criminal jury trial.

“The trial lasted until mid-February,” he said. “I finished the trial.”

“On one occasion I helped out in family court,” he added. “Part of a presiding judge’s job is helping out when I can.”

Bowen served as assistant presiding judge prior to being selected presiding judge by his colleagues. He doesn’t have a regular court calendar these days, as he oversees the other bench officers. A court executive officer, or CEO, oversees most day-to-day administrative operations. Nevertheless, Bowen said he was surprised at the volume of administrative work he handles as presiding judge.

“There are a lot of meetings,” he said.

He does have a special assignment one day a week in family court where he’s taking care of cases dating back to the early 1990s that may not have been brought to judgment, he explained. “The rule is they’re supposed to be brought to a judge within five years,” he said. “Many days, no one comes, but sometimes people come and they’re directed to the self-help center. Sometimes, they ask to dismiss” a case or people have passed away.

Bowen said that he works to clear and close those types of cases.

Probably one the most important things Bowen does is make assignments, deciding what each of the 32 trial court judges will oversee: criminal cases, civil matters, or family court. (The court usually has 38 judges but there are currently two vacancies, Bowen explained.) As assistant presiding judge, Bowen made those decisions late last year for this year. He was asked about his general philosophy around assignments.

“My guiding principle is the needs of the court,” he said. “Certainly, I take into consideration a judge’s particular interest, desire, or location. Where is the judge in career trajectory or if they’ve been here a long time and been through all the assignments. Some courts have a regular rotation. We don’t.”

Typically, he sends out a letter beforehand asking each judge for their top three choices and tries to accommodate that. For this year, at least, the process worked well.

“If there was negative feedback I didn’t hear it,” he said.

One of the first things he did as presiding judge was to swear in members of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors in January.

“It was wonderful to connect with the community that day,” he recalled. “We had a lunch with community leaders, and our CEO and I attended. We were very well received.

“One thing I’m happy to do as presiding judge is organize a day for elected officials to come and visit court,” he said, adding that was something pioneered in Los Angeles. “I’d really like to have a day when local elected officials and state [officials] come and see what we’re doing.”

Another thing Bowen has continued is having high school students visit the court.

“I had the pleasure of greeting those groups, and we received a letter from one of the schools that was absolutely moving,” he said.

Bowen brought out one card in which students thanked him; some wrote that they got ideas for possible careers.

He passed around a copy of a second letter to those judges who were named in it for taking the time to meet with the students. “They made a difference in kids’ lives,” said Bowen. “It’s a small thing, but the kind of thing I attend to.”
 
County changes
Contra Costa County used to be reliably conservative. That has changed over the years. Bowen lived in Richmond for many years and was assigned to the courthouse there. Martinez is the county seat, and other cities in the county include Antoich, Walnut Creek, Concord, and Pleasant Hill.

“It’s a wonderful county,” Bowen said. “There has been a lot of change. I would no longer describe it as very conservative.

“In the late 1990s and early 2000s it was not an easy place for LGBT folks. That was one reason I connected early on with BALIF,” he said, referring to Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, an LGBTQ bar association. “I had to travel all the way to San Francisco, but it was a way to make connections.”

Prior to becoming a judge, Bowen worked as an attorney in the Contra Costa County Public Defender’s office.

He earned his law degree at the University of Virginia after receiving his undergraduate degree from Santa Clara University. A Bay Area native who grew up in Berkeley, where he now resides, he was asked what led him to go to law school across the country.

“I got into a really good law school,” Bowen said. “I was ready for some East Coast exposure. I had a dream of [Washington] D.C. but that dream was never realized and I moved back home.

“I came out in law school,” Bowen continued, adding that at the time, there weren’t a lot of programs for queer law students. “Now they have really robust programs for LGBT students.”

“One of the things I do is I try to make myself a mentor for law students and summer interns,” he added.

Bowen is also involved with the International Association of LGBTQ Judges. “That group is really important to me and there is a large contingent of California judges now,” he said.
 

Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Hardie was the first out person appointed in the county and the first to serve as presiding judge.    Photo: Courtesy the subject

Praise from colleagues
Hardie and Clarke both praised Bowen’s tenure as presiding judge.

“I’ve known Judge Bowen a long while, and he’s done a great job so far,” said Hardie, who sits on the court’s executive committee. “He’s bright, collaborative, and decisive. He listens to different perspectives. I find him to be very strategic.”

Hardie was a former federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office when she was recruited by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to be its director of tort litigation. She said she had applied for a judgeship and waited at least a year until she heard from the governor’s office.

Clarke said that the court continues to run smoothly with Bowen at the helm.

“From my perspective things haven’t changed,” she said. “He’s very open and welcoming to everyone. He’s very supportive of all of his co-workers and staff … staff work so hard; they go nonstop all day long.”

Clarke formerly worked as a deputy state public defender before becoming a staff attorney at the First District Appellate Project, a nonprofit law office created through a partnership with the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District; the Bar Association of San Francisco; and the Administrative Office of the Courts. Its staff and panel attorneys provide representation to those who cannot afford counsel, according to its website.

Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Glenn Kim acknowledged in a phone interview that he’d “be very glowing” when discussing Bowen. Kim, 43, is a straight ally who was appointed to the bench by Newsom about three and a half years ago. He works in Martinez and handles the felony arraignment calendar, hears felony motions and preliminary hearings, and presides over probation, parole, and other formal supervision violation hearings.

Kim said that Bowen was his supervising judge his first two years on the bench.

“He was my mentor from the get-go,” Kim said. “He treated me as a peer, and I always appreciated that.”

Before becoming a judge, Kim worked as a prosecutor for the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office for three years; prior to that he held a similar position with the Alameda County DA’s office.

“He really takes everything to heart,” Kim said. “My kids call him Uncle Christopher.”

Bowen said he brings several strengths to the job of presiding judge.

“I’m a really good listener,” he said. “I’ve already had people thank me for just hearing them out. Sometimes, I can’t do anything, or it’s not in my lane, but I can listen.”

Another strong point, he said, is that he’s not quick to rush to judgment.

“The presiding judge has an absolute duty to investigate every complaint,” he explained, “and I think it’s important to be transparent in what you’re thinking.”
 
Challenges ahead
Bowen said that his first priority is hiring a new CEO. He and the other judges learned in March that longtime former CEO Kate Bieker would be leaving. She is now the CEO for Ventura County Superior Court.

“It’s a huge loss,” Bowen said, adding that it will give him and the other judges on the executive committee an opportunity to find a new top administrator. The court CEO deals with finances, facilities, and other matters.

Hardie, too, said the search for a permanent CEO would be one of Bowen’s top tasks.

Bieker did not return a request for comment.

Hardie also said that a challenge for the court is access to data for the public.

“A real change, I think, is the public’s desire, and right, quite frankly, is access to data and resources,” said Hardie. “The courts need to pivot and provide those. Courts, I think, are behind the tech curve, and I think they need to be forward-looking. There are budget constraints and friction there.”

She pointed to the court’s need to hire and retain highly skilled employees to run the IT department.

Bowen said that he also wants to work at raising the court’s profile.

“It’s really important to me to make sure we’re always remembering the goal of access to justice, that our services are accessible to everyone – people with lawyers and self-represented,” he said.

Fiscal issues are also key. “A lot of voices throughout the judicial branch” talk about stable funding, Bowen said, “They’re not even talking about increases because we have to be able to plan and support our programs.”

Another of Bowen’s duties is welcoming new judges. Since the court is down two positions, it’s expected that Newsom will, at some point, fill those seats.

“Welcoming new judges on the bench and helping them transition to the bench” is important, Bowen said.

“It’s not always easy, and I want to be a resource to new judges,” he added. “I hope my style of leadership – I’m trying to cultivate the next generation of court leaders – I see that as kind of a responsibility.”