Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell ’71 has penned, Her Honor: A Judge’s Candid Look at Our Legal System, a memoir detailing her personal story and experiences with the American judicial system as a jurist, lawyer, and police auditor. Published by Celadon Books, Her Honor will be released on October 5, 2021.
Judge Cordell is retired from the Superior Court of California and an Independent Police Auditor for the city of San Jose, California. She is an advocate for improving transparency into police misconduct and accountability, a trailblazer and a graduate of the Antioch College class of 1971.
She has received numerous awards and prizes for social activism and breaking race and gender barriers, including the Rose Bird Memorial Award from the California Women Lawyers, the Rosa Parks Ordinary People Award from the NAACP, and she received the Horace Mann Award from the Antioch College Alumni Association in 2017. Judge Cordell founded the African American Donor Task Force to increase black participation in the national bone marrow registry. She is the co-founder of the African American Composer Initiative and CA Parks for All.
Watch two recent videos featuring Jude Cordell: 2017 Horace Mann Award acceptance speech and the Spotlight on Excellence where she discusses the protest action to end police violence.
