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The Lawyer Referral Service of the South Bay Bar Association provides access to qualified attorneys in all areas of legal practice. If you need to find a lawyer you can either use our online form or call (310) 787-9184 .
This year’s recipient is the Honorable Mark S. Arnold. Judge Arnold was appointed by Governor Pete Wilson to the South Bay Municipal Court on January 27, 1998. He presided over both misdemeanor and felony criminal trials, and was recognized by the Los Angeles County Presiding Judges Association as a Distinguished Judge. In January 2000, he was elevated to the Superior Court, where he continued to preside over a courtroom that had a felony criminal calendar. He recently presided over a twelve-week trial involving a father accused of murdering his 4-year-old daughter by throwing her off of a Rancho Palos Verdes cliff. Noted attorney Mark Geragos defended the father.
Judge Arnold served as assistant presiding judge for the Southwest District from January 2003, through December 2003, and since January 1, 2004, as the presiding judge, handling all of the administrative duties for the Torrance, Redondo Beach and Inglewood courthouses.
A graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles, where he made the dean’s list while also working full-time as a Los Angeles County Sheriff, Judge Arnold obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Administration of Justice. He continued to work full-time as a sheriff’s deputy while obtaining his Jurist Doctor’s Degree from Southwestern University, graduating in the upper 30% of his class. For three years he was a deputy district attorney with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, where his last major assignment was to the Crimes Against Peace Officers Section, which prosecuted defendants who commit felonious assaults and murders of peace officers. During his stint with the District Attorney’s Office, he tried over 70 jury trials, 18 involving charges of murder of which eight had special circumstances alleged. He has received numerous honors, including Prosecutor of the Year by the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs in 1995, and Prosecutor of the Year in 1997, presented this time by the Association of Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorneys. He is recognized by the California District Attorney’s Association as an outstanding seminar speaker on topics of the law of murder, conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and other forms of vicarious liability.
Judge Arnold is an active member of numerous community and legal organizations, including the Torrance Kiwanis Club, where he is a member of the Board of Directors, the Benjamin Aranda American Inns of Court, where he is member of the executive committee, the Women Lawyers of Los Angeles, Mexican American Bar Association, L.A. County Bar Association, as a member of the Criminal Justice Section Executive Committee, and the South Bay Bar Association, where he attends almost every event. For the past 16 years, Judge Arnold has been an instructor at El Camino College, teaching two classes in the Administration of Justice Department: Laws of Arrest, Search, and Seizure, covering the 4th, 5th, and 6th amendments and Principles of the Justice System, which provides students with an overview of the entire criminal justice system.
We honor him for his dedication and service to the South Bay as a Judge, teacher and community leader, and for his unwavering support of the South Bay Bar Association.
The South Bay Bar Association confers the Judge William E. MacFaden Award upon a member of the bench or bar who has made a distinguished, ongoing contribution to the legal community of the South Bay, whether in the field of administration of justice, the practice of law, legal education, or community service. The award is named in honor of Judge William E. MacFaden, a widely respected South Bay lawyer and judge who served as the first president of the South Bay Bar Association. Past recipients of the award include Commissioner Abraham Gorenfeld (1997), Stanley Remelmeyer (1998), Justice J. Gary Hastings (1999), Justice Norman L. Epstein (2000), Judge William R. Hollingsworth, Jr. (2001) Jeremy H. Evans (2002), Commissioner Douglas G. Carnahan (2003), Judge Francis J. Hourigan (2004), Judge Bob Hight (2005) and Judge Sandra Thompson (2006).