One of the defining moments of Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian’s life was the death of her oldest son, Matthew, a Marine captain who died while serving in Afghanistan in 2012. Matthew’s four combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq had convinced him of the importance of the rule of law, according to his mother. He had already been accepted into law school.
“Matthew’s death had a profound and lasting effect on our family,” Bamattre-Manoukian says. “To honor our son Matthew, my husband Socrates and our sons Michael and Martin and I try to help everyone that we can in any way possible.”
For Socrates Manoukian, a superior court judge in California’s Santa Clara County, that has meant mentoring hundreds of law students, young lawyers, and service members. Michael is an employment lawyer and president of the St. Thomas More Society, and Martin is an emergency medicine doctor in the Navy. For Bamattre-Manoukian, it has meant helping people resolve their disputes as an associate justice for the California Court of Appeal’s Sixth Appellate District from 1989 until her retirement in April.
Bamattre-Manoukian credits her interest in the law to the father of her best friend in high school, a corporate lawyer who became a friend and mentor. “He loved the practice of law,” she remembers. “He inspired me to go to law school.”
Bamattre-Manoukian did take a bit of a detour first, however. She began her academic career at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she met Socrates and earned an undergraduate degree in political science and psychology in 1972. She then earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California in 1974, later earning a doctorate in public administration from the school in 1989.
“I was always interested in public administration, public policy, and leadership theory,” she says. “I focused my graduate studies on criminal justice administration and leadership theory.” In between those last two degrees, she earned a law degree in 1977 from Loyola Law School.
Bamattre-Manoukian began her professional career as a deputy district attorney in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, becoming one of the first women to prosecute homicides in that office. After just six years, she became a judge for the Orange County Municipal Court.
After relocating to the Bay Area in 1985, she was appointed to the Santa Clara County Municipal Court. She was then elevated to the Santa Clara County Superior Court in 1988 and served as the court’s family law supervising judge in 1989. That year, the governor appointed her to her role as an associate justice of the California Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District, making her the court’s first woman justice.
After serving as a judicial officer for more than 41 years—including more than 35 years on the Sixth District Court of Appeals—Bamattre-Manoukian looks back at her career with great fondness. “I loved every assignment and every aspect of my judicial career,” she says.
She loved resolving people’s conflicts, including helping divorcing parents resolve their custody and visitation issues. She loved studying the law, analyzing legal issues, and contributing to the development of the law. She loved teaching and mentoring. And she loved helping administer the judicial branch by serving on the Judicial Council and many judicial committees.
In addition, Bamattre-Manoukian cochaired the Santa Clara County Bar Association’s Appellate Courts Committee from 2004 to 2005. In that role, she helped create many education programs to fill a gap in specialized appellate education credits.
Bamattre-Manoukian is also a past president of the Honorable William A. Ingram American Inn of Court in San Jose. A member of the Inn since 1999, she served as the Inn’s president from 2006 to 2008. She has served as an executive committee member for more than two decades.
The Inn gives her the opportunity to mentor law students and young lawyers, just as she was mentored in her early days, she says. She considers herself to be “deeply blessed” to have had many wonderful mentors throughout her legal and judicial career.
“When I started trying cases as a deputy district attorney in Orange County, many lawyers and judges reached out to help me and to mentor me,” she says. “When I served as a municipal court and superior court judge, again many judges reached out to help me and mentor me. And so it was very important to me to try to reach out and to mentor young lawyers and judges and to help them just as so many had helped me.”