Profile of Lauri A. Damrell
Justice Lauri A. Damrell was appointed to California’s Third District Court of Appeal by Governor Gavin Newsom and unanimously confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments on August 19, 2026.
Prior to her elevation to the Court of Appeal, Justice Damrell served as a judge of the Sacramento County Superior Court from 2018 to 2026, presiding over a broad range of civil, criminal, and family law matters. In 2022, she spearheaded the development of the Superior Court’s Complex Civil Litigation Department, transitioning it from a limited case-management function into a direct-calendar assignment.
From 2006 to 2018, Justice Damrell practiced at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, becoming partner in 2016, with a particular focus on employment law, workplace equity, and complex litigation. From 2005 to 2006, she clerked for Chief Judge David F. Levi of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.
From 2014 to 2017, Justice Damrell served as Governor Jerry Brown’s appointee on the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, chairing the Commission in her final year. In that role, she co-founded the California Pay Equity Task Force, which united employees, employers, policymakers, economists, and legal experts to find common ground in implementing California’s new equal pay law. She also co-founded the Mother Attorneys Mentoring Association of Sacramento (MAMAS), served on the board of the National Association of Women Lawyers, and has served as one of Governor Newsom’s appointees to the Northern California Judicial Selection Advisory Committee since 2019.
Justice Damrell teaches at the University of California, Davis, School of Law and at Lincoln Law School of Sacramento, where her courses have included Judicial Process, Civil Procedure, Complex Civil Litigation, Civil Pleadings and Practice, and Implicit Bias and the Law. She has received Judge of the Year awards from the Capitol City Trial Lawyers Association and the American Board of Trial Advocates, Sacramento Valley Chapter (both 2025), and the Virginia Mueller Outstanding Member Award from the National Association of Women Lawyers (2014). She served as President of the Anthony M. Kennedy American Inn of Court from 2022 to 2024.
Justice Damrell received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a varsity rower and an Academic All-Ivy League student-athlete, and her Juris Doctor, Order of the Coif, from the University of California, Davis, School of Law.