Kathryn Doi Todd

Kathryn Doi Todd (, born January 14, 1942) is a retired associate justice of the California Second District Court of Appeal, Division Two, having been appointed to the post by Governor Gray Davis in 2000.

Biography Kathryn Asako Doi was born in Los Angeles, California, and is of Japanese descent. She was interned at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center as an infant after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. From 1971 to 1978, Todd was an attorney in Little Tokyo.

In 1978, Governor Jerry Brown appointed her to the Los Angeles County Municipal Court, making her the first female Asian American judge in the United States. In 1981, Brown elevated Todd to the Los Angeles County Superior Court, a position she would hold until when Brown's former chief of staff, Governor Gray Davis, appointed her to the California Second District Court of Appeal, Division Two as of August 18, 2000.

In 2014 she received the Margaret Brent Award from the American Bar Association.

Personal life On June 16, 1974, Doi married sculptor Michael C. Todd, with whom she has one daughter, Mia, who is a singer and songwriter. The couple divorced while she was on the Superior Court.