The Hon. Gabriel P. Sanchez

The Honorable Gabriel P. Sanchez is a Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Judge Sanchez was nominated for the federal judgeship by President Joseph R. Biden on September 20, 2021, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 12, 2022.  He serves on the California State-Federal Judicial Council and the Education Committee for the Ninth Circuit.

Judge Sanchez was previously appointed by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. to the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District in 2018 as an Associate Justice in Division One, where he authored or participated in over 490 written opinions. 

From 2012 to 2018, Judge Sanchez served as Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary and a senior advisor to Governor Brown on corrections and criminal justice matters.  He was responsible for managing state and federal prisoner class actions and other significant litigation and appeals, supervising the work of more than one hundred attorneys from the Office of the Attorney General and outside counsel.  He advised the Brown administration on criminal justice policy reforms and legislation, executive appointments, and parole and clemency decisions, and was a principal author of the landmark Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016 (Proposition 57) and its enabling regulations.  Prior to the Governor’s Office, Judge Sanchez served as a Deputy Attorney General in the Office of the Attorney General in San Francisco.

Judge Sanchez began his legal career clerking for the Honorable Richard A. Paez on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  From 2006 to 2011, he was counsel at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP where he litigated a wide range of civil matters at the trial and appellate levels. Active in his pro bono practice, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California presented him with the Social Justice Award in 2010 for his work on Bautista v. State of California, a lawsuit brought on behalf of farm workers against the State of California to improve and enforce heat illness protection safety regulations.  As a result of these efforts, California adopted workplace protections that have become a national standard.

Born in Los Angeles, Judge Sanchez received his bachelor’s degree from Yale College in 1998 in Political Science and International Studies, graduating with distinction in both majors.  He was a Fulbright Scholar in 1999 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he surveyed and wrote about presidential electoral campaign politics.  He received a master’s degree in European Studies in 2000 from the University of Cambridge, and his juris doctor degree in 2005 from Yale Law School.  

Judge Sanchez serves on the board of directors of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a Los-Angeles based non-profit, non-partisan organization that promotes civic engagement with global policy issues.