The Honorable Monica F. Wiley

The Honorable Monica F. Wiley was appointed to the San Francisco Superior Court Bench on September 1, 2009, by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Judge Wiley is the second African American female judge appointed to the San Francisco bench. During her tenure with the San Francisco Superior Court, Judge Wiley has presided in civil, criminal, family, delinquency and dependency departments in both trial and calendar courtrooms. She has served as the Supervising Judge of the Unified Family Court since 2018 and currently is a member of the Court’s Executive Committee, the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, the Personnel Committee, and the Judicial Mentor Committee. Judge Wiley is also a member on the 2021-2023 Judicial College Steering Committee, faculty member and seminar group leader for the B.E. Witkin Judicial College, and a member of the faculty for the California Center for Judicial Education (CJER) for New Judges Orientation (NJO). She also serves on several statewide committees as a member of the Judicial Council Juvenile Law Curriculum Committee, the Family and Juvenile Law Advisory Committee, and is a Commissioner with the California Commission on Access to Justice. Judge Wiley is also an Adjunct Professor at the College of the Law, San Francisco where she teaches an advanced Trial Advocacy course.  

Prior to her appointment, Judge Wiley was a senior associate at the law firm of Carlson, Calladine & Peterson LLP in San Francisco handling catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases for individual and corporate defendants. Before joining the private sector, Judge Wiley worked as a Deputy City Attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney's Office for over ten years litigating complex personal injury matters and civil rights actions. She served as lead trial counsel in 27 jury trials both in state and federal court.

As a practicing attorney, Judge Wiley was admitted to the United States District Court, Northern District of California, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Wiley currently serves as a task force member on statewide committees focused on civility and the elimination of bias in the legal profession and on the advisory committee of Centro Legal De La Raza’s Youth Law Academy. Judge Wiley is a life member of the California Association of Black Lawyers (CABL), the Association of African American California Judicial Officers (AAACJO) and is the immediate past Chair of the Judicial Council of CABL. Judge Wiley is also an associate member of the San Francisco Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and the 2022 President of the Lawyers Club of San Francisco, an American Inn of Court.

Judge Wiley earned her J.D., cum laude, from Howard University School of Law. She received her bachelor’s degree in Political Economies of Industrial Societies from the University of California at Berkeley and is a four-year letter winner as a member of the women’s intercollegiate basketball team. Go Bears! During her judicial career, Judge Wiley has received the 2021 Bernard S. Jefferson Judge of the Year from the California Association of Black Lawyers, the 2021 Alba Witkin Humanitarian Award from the California Judges Association and was named the 2022 California Family Law Judicial Officer of the Year by the California Lawyers Association.