Hon. Bunmi O. Awoniyi

Presiding Judge, Superior Court of Sacramento County
Current Term: September 15, 2024−September 14, 2026
Membership: Voting member appointed by Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero
Internal Committees: Legislation Committee, Rules Committee

Judge Bunmi O. Awoniyi was appointed to the Superior Court of Sacramento County in 2012 by Governor Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown, Jr., and she currently serves in the Sacramento court as the presiding judge. She also served as the supervising judge for family law and probate for four years before becoming the assistant presiding judge in 2022. Before her appointment to the bench, Judge Awoniyi was a certified family law specialist and maintained a family law practice in Sacramento for 18 years.

Judge Awoniyi serves as Primary Orientation faculty for the Judicial Council’s Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER) and has taught numerous other CJER courses at the Family Law Institute, Domestic Violence Institute, and the Cow County Judges Institute. She is a member of the council’s Family and Juvenile Law Advisory Committee and Family Law Curriculum Committee. She also teaches and mentors future lawyers as an adjunct professor at Lincoln Law School. In 2018, Judge Awoniyi was awarded Judge of the Year by the Wiley Manual Bar Association. In 2024, she received the Bernard S. Jefferson Judge of the Year award from the California Association of Black Lawyers.

Judge Awoniyi received a bachelor of laws degree from Essex University and a master of laws degree from the University of Leicester in England. She completed the vocational training for a barrister at law from the Inns of Court School of Law in London and was called to the Bar of England and Wales as a barrister at law in 1988. Judge Awoniyi received the Pegasus International Lawyer Scholarship for Young Lawyers from the American and English Inns of Court, initiating her California legal career.