Official biography from the CA Court of Appeals website:
Laurence D. Rubin was confirmed as the Presiding Justice of the Second District Court of Appeal, Division Five, in December 2018. He served as an Associate Justice in Division Eight beginning October 2001. Prior to his appointment, Presiding Justice Rubin was a trial judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court and Santa Monica Municipal Court for 19 years, handling felony, misdemeanor, and civil trials. While a trial court judge, he sat on assignment with the Court of Appeal in 1985, 1992, 1995, and 2000.
During his 32 years on the trial and appellate courts, Justice Rubin has been active in a number of judicial activities. Since 2005, he has been a member of the California Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on the Code of Judicial Ethics. The Committee advises the Supreme Court on ethics matters and on amendments to the Code of Judicial Ethics. Effective January 2013, the Supreme Court amended the Code in a comprehensive manner based on recommendations of its Advisory Committee. Justice Rubin has also chaired the California Judges Association’s Committee on Judicial Ethics and served as the Association’s Vice President in 1996. For seven years, Justice Rubin was a member of the Judicial Council’s Trial Court Coordination Advisory Committee. The work of the Committee eventually produced a series of recommendations that led to the passage of an amendment to the California Constitution and companion legislation that unified the state’s trial courts, resulting in significant savings of financial and judicial resources.
Justice Rubin has long been active in judicial and legal education, teaching ethics, technology, and appellate practice to various associations of judges and attorneys throughout the state. He has served as a mock trial judge and taught legal classes at UCLA and USC, and was President of the UCLA Law Alumni Association. He has also participated in a number of community activities during his legal career. Justice Rubin was previously a member of the Beverly Hills and Santa Monica Bar Association Board of Governors, and served as the former’s Barristers (Young Lawyers) President.
Justice Rubin is a lifelong resident of Los Angeles, having graduated UCLA as an undergraduate (B.A. 1968) and law school (J.D. 1971). Following law school, he was a law clerk for California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk. He then joined the firm of Kaplan, Livingston Goodwin Berkowitz and Selvin, and later Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp, before his appointment to the bench.
Justice Rubin is married to Susan Grinel and is the father of two adult sons.
