Cristina Legaspi, an adjunct lecturer of law at USC, has achieved a life goal.

“This is answered dreams. This is a dream come true. This is hard work realized,” Legaspi said.

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

On Jan. 29, California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Legaspi to a Los Angeles County Superior Court judgeship, the next step in a long legal career.

Legaspi, who has worked at USC since Spring 2023, is among 16 judicial appointments throughout the state and one of five in L.A.s County, announced late last month. 

Legaspi’s legal career spans from work in private practice to a 25-year career at the L.A. County Office of the County Counsel. 

Her career began after graduating from the University of West L.A. School of Law in 1997. In 1998, she worked at the law firm Ivie, McNeil and Wyatt — now known as Ivie McNeil Wyatt Purcell and Diggs — and later joined Weissman and Associates in 1998. In 1999, she joined the L.A. County Office of the County Counsel and is now the senior deputy county counsel. 

Elizabeth Carroll, vice dean for curriculum at the Gould School of Law, professor of lawyering skills, and director of legal writing and advocacy at Gould, said Legaspi’s work at USC is focused around familiarizing international students with the United States legal system. Legaspi currently teaches legal writing in the Master of Laws program to international students.

“They take it because they want to learn about how to write in the U.S. legal style. They learn how to do objective legal writing. So they learn objective legal analysis and the way the U.S. legal style organizes that analysis. And they learn to write an objective analysis in a legal memorandum,” Carroll said.

Legaspi does not know yet which area of law her court will be presiding over. She said she anticipates her assignment in the next few days. 

She said she plans to continue teaching, which she gets great satisfaction from, but may have to make adjustments depending on where she gets assigned. One possibility for her would be to teach her course in the evening. This semester, her class meets from 5-5:50 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

“I really love it,” Legaspi said. “I think the part-time evening schedule works for me. It’s ideal, and I get a lot of fulfillment from teaching so I plan on continuing to do so.”

Liv Hauserman, who was a student fellow last semester for Legaspi’s class, was impressed at how hands-on Legaspi was working with students that needed to improve and working with them one-on-one. 

“[Legaspi] took a lot of time to really give them individual feedback on their writing,” Hauserman said. “The point of the legal writing course is really to help them develop a very specific style of legal writing that’s really important when you’re working, particularly for writing briefs and using correct citations for different cases and legal authorities.” 

Legaspi said being a judge and teaching future lawyers will give her students a different and unique perspective as they prepare to take the bar exam. 

“Being a judge and teaching these future lawyers will bring about a perspective of how to practice, how to present your cases in court, the proper rules of evidence, the proper procedure and it brings a perspective of what judges look for in terms of evidence in order to make rulings in decisions,” Legaspi said.