FAIRFIELD – Carlos R. Gutierrez will soon join Solano County Superior Court as its newest judge.
Gutierrez, 58, of Dixon, was appointed by Gov. Edmund G. Brown in June. He has been a private practice attorney at Bernheim, Gutierrez & McCready since 1994. He started his own private practice in 1984, just a year after earning his law degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. He also attended California State University, Sacramento, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and ethnic studies in 1979.
Gutierrez declined to be interviewed for this story. He was born in Mexico and moved to Dixon when he was 9 years old, according to his law firm profile. He uses his fluency in Spanish to help clients with limited English skills. Collectively, his law firm has experiences in areas of business, corporate partnership, real property, patent, copyright, trademark, probate, wills and trusts, personal injury, workers’ compensation, social security, criminal, bankruptcy and family law.
Gutierrez begins work Monday, Solano County Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Fracchia told the Northern California Record. He said the court looks forward to the addition of Gutierrez.
“He has a real breadth of experience coming into the court,” Fracchia said. “He’s practiced in criminal law, in some civil law. He’s also done an extensive amount of family and guardian work. He brings a larger skillset to the bench.”
With that experience, Fracchia said he expects Gutierrez will be able to preside over the varied cases that come before the court.
Gutierrez has worked part-time as an administrative law judge for the California Office of Administrative Hearings and as a pro tem judge in the Solano County Courts. Now as an appointed judge in Solano County, he fills Judge Ramona J. Garrett’s seat, left vacant when she retired in 2015 after 23 years on the bench.
Fracchia said the court awaits another appointment to fill a seat that has been vacant for about a year. In October, Judge David Edwin Power announced his retirement after 25 years. Power continues to serve until a new appointment is made.