Newsom appoints 3 to Kern Superior Court
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the appointment of three new judges to the Kern County Superior Court on Tuesday.
They are Wendy L. Avila, 52, of Bakersfield; Bernard C. Barmann Jr., 54, of Bakersfield; and Jason W. Webster, 47, of Tehachapi.
The governor’s office provided the following information about the judges:
Avila has served as senior assistant inspector general at the Office of the Inspector General since 2017. She was an adjunct lecturer at Cal State Bakersfield from 2008 to 2016 and served as a deputy district attorney at the Kern County District Attorney’s Office from 1999 to 2017, where she was a family support officer from 1997 to 1999. She earned a juris doctor degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law. Avila fills the vacancy created by Judge Steven M. Katz’s retirement. The governor’s office noted
she is the first Latina judge appointed to Kern County Superior Court.
Barmann has been a partner at Kuhs & Parker since 2019, where he was an associate from 2011 to 2019. He was counsel at O’Melveny & Myers LLP from 2008 to 2011 and a partner at Hirschmann & Barmann LLP from 2002 to 2007. Barmann was an associate at Proskauer Rose LLP from 2000 to 2002 and special counsel and associate at O’Melveny & Myers LLP from 1990 to 1999. He earned a juris doctor degree from Columbia Law School.
Webster has served as a Kern County Superior Court commissioner since 2017. He was a deputy district attorney at the Kern County District Attorney’s Office from 2008 to 2017 and was a sole practitioner from 2007 to 2008. Webster served as a deputy district attorney at the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office from 2005 to 2007 and was an associate at Andrus and Associates from 2004 to 2005. He earned a juris doctor degree from Baylor University Law School.
Barmann and Webster fill vacancies of new positions created in September 2019.
The three appointments in Kern were among 12 total made throughout the state. The others were three in Alameda County, five in San Diego County and one in Tulare County.
The compensation for each judge position is $214,601, according to the governor’s office.