The Honorable Patricia M. Lucas sits on the California Superior Court for Santa Clara County, where she served as presiding judge in 2017 and 2018, and currently manages a docket of complex civil cases.  She has presided over civil and criminal trials, a civil pretrial docket, and direct calendars in the criminal and family divisions.  Judge Lucas has supervised the Court’s civil and family divisions.  She also served in a pro tem assignment on the Sixth District Court of Appeal.  

Before she took office in 2003, Judge Lucas practiced complex civil litigation for over 20 years, most recently with the Silicon Valley firm of Fenwick & West, where she chaired the litigation group.  She frequently teaches judges and served as the Dean of the California Judicial College.  She also teaches lawyers through the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), and promotes education among the bench and bar through her participation on the boards of the William A. Ingram Inn of Court and the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. She has taught at several law schools.

Judge Lucas is a third-generation San Franciscan, a graduate of University of California Berkeley School of Law, a mother and a grandmother, and a citizen of the Republic of Ireland.