Vaino Spencer | |
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Presiding Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division One | |
In office August 19, 1980 – August 31, 2007 | |
Appointed by | Governor Jerry Brown |
Personal details | |
Born | Los Angeles, California, U.S. | July 22, 1920
Died | October 25, 2016 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 96)
Spouse | Lorenzo V. Spencer |
Education | Polytechnic High School |
Alma mater |
Los Angeles City College Southwestern Law School |
Profession | Lawyer, judge |
Known for | First African-American woman appointed to a judgeship in California |
Vaino Hassan Spencer (July 22, 1920 – October 25, 2016) was an American judge, the first African-American woman appointed to a judgeship in California. [1] She co-founded the Black Women Lawyers Association in 1975, [2] and the National Association of Women Judges in 1979. [3]
Vaino Hassan was born in 1920, in Los Angeles. As a teenager, she appeared as a dancer in a Laurel and Hardy movie, Bonnie Scotland (1935), along with her father, Abdul Hassan. [4]
She graduated from Polytechnic High School in 1938, attended Los Angeles City College as an undergraduate, and earned a law degree from Southwestern Law School in 1952. [5] She was the third African-American woman admitted to the California bar. [6] Before her law degree, she held a real estate license, and worked in that business. [7]
Vaino Hassan Spencer practiced as a lawyer in Los Angeles. In 1961 she was appointed as a municipal court judge in Los Angeles, the first black woman in California appointed to a judgeship. In 1976, she became a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge, and in 1980 she was named a Presiding Judge of the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division One. She retired in 2007 as "one of the longest-serving judges in California history." [8]
Vaino Hassan married real estate agent Lorenzo V. Spencer. [9] They divorced in 1967. [10]
The National Association of Women Judges annually presents the Justice Vaino Spencer Leadership Award for outstanding leadership. [11]
Spencer died on October 25, 2016, at her home in Los Angeles. [12] [13]