Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl teaches Civil Procedure in Practice at UCLA School of Law.

Judge Kuhl was appointed to serve as a Judge of the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles in 1995. Judge Kuhl was a founding judge of the State’s Complex Civil Litigation Courts and has served for more than 10 years in that assignment. The central focus of the Complex Civil Litigation Courts is to expedite case resolution while reducing litigation costs.

Judge Kuhl served as Presiding Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court in 2015 and 2016 and as Assistant Presiding Judge in 2013 and 2014. The Los Angeles Superior Court is the largest state trial court in the Country with more than 550 judicial officers spread over the County of Los Angeles in 40 courthouses. As Presiding Judge, Judge Kuhl was responsible for ensuring that the work of the Court is addressed in a context that ensures access to justice, determining the number and type of courtrooms located in each courthouse, assigning each judicial officer to a courtroom and case type, overseeing the Court budget and advocating for budget resources.

The Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court appointed Judge Kuhl to serve on the Committee on the Future of the California Courts in 2014. Judge Kuhl was a Member of the Judicial Council of California, the policy-making body for the California state court system, from 2006 through 2009. She was a Member of the statewide Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions and served on the Task Force on Civil Jury Instructions. She was a Member of the Governing Committee of the Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER).

The Chief Justice of the United States recently named Judge Kuhl to the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States (commonly known as the Standing Committee on Federal Rules). She is the first state trial judge to serve on that Committee. She is a member of the Council of the American Law Institute and serves on the Executive Committee of the Council. She is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Institute for Civil Justice of the Rand Corporation, and she is Vice Chair of the Governing Council of the American Bar Association Center for Innovation in the Legal Profession.

Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Kuhl was a partner in the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson. From 1981 through 1986 she served in the United States Department of Justice as Special Assistant to the Attorney General, Deputy Assistant Attorney General (Civil Division), and Principal Deputy Solicitor General, preparing and arguing cases before the United States Supreme Court. Judge Kuhl was a law clerk to the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy when he sat as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Judge Kuhl graduated with distinction from Duke Law School, was an editor of the Duke Law Journal, and received an A.B. degree, cum laude in chemistry, from Princeton University.