Hon. Darrell Mavis
Los Angeles Superior Court
Judge Darrell Mavis, Mock Trial alumnus, was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006 to the Los Angeles Superior Court where he primarily presides over criminal jury trials. Prior to his appointment, he was a prosecutor for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for 14 years. Judge Mavis tried over 100 jury trials, including murder, torture, kidnapping, child molestation, and mayhem cases. Among his high-profile murder cases, he prosecuted one of California’s largest "no body" murder cases and successfully tried a 17-year-old, double-murder case that involved the killing of two special agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as the almost fatal wounding of a third special agent during an international, undercover sting operation.
From 1998-2000, Judge Mavis was appointed Attorney Liaison at the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of International Affairs, where he worked on international criminal matters for state and local prosecutors throughout the United States.
For the past decade, Judge Mavis has been a member of the Visiting Faculty for the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School. He was the past Chair of the State Bar’s Criminal Law Section Executive Committee. He has spoken on over 50 occasions to the California State Bar, UCLA Law School, National College of District Attorneys, National Homicide Symposium, National Association of Attorneys General, and various state and local bar associations. For several years, Judge Mavis created and taught a Persuasive Speaking course at UCLA.
Judge Mavis studied politics, philosophy, and economics at Oxford University, and received a Bachelor of Science in economics from MIT and a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School.
- Featured Alumni: Stepehn Anderson | Alyse Cato | Fesia Devenport | Dora Duru | Gemma Jimenez | Kristina Levsky | Hon. Jackson Lucky | Asia McLain | Hon. Raquel Márquez-Britsch | Hon. Darrell Mavis | Natalie Robinson | David Rosen | Janet Sevilla