LaDoris Cordell

LaDoris Hazzard Cordell is an American retired judge of the Superior Court of California, and a retired Independent Police Auditor for the city of San Jose, California. As the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at Stanford Law School (1978-82), Cordell developed an admissions program that led to a dramatic increase in the number of African American and Latino students at the law school. Within a year, Stanford Law School went from last to first place in the enrollment of students of color among major law schools. Cordell was the first female African American judge in Northern California, and the first African American Superior Court judge in Santa Clara County, California. She is an advocate for judicial independence; improving transparency into charges of police misconduct, and her memoir, Her Honor: My Life on the Bench...What Works, What's Broken, and How to Change It, was published in 2021. Education Cordell received her bachelor's degree from Antioch College in 1971, and her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1974.