Judge Curtis E.A. Karnow (Ret.) served on the California Superior Court (County of San Francisco) including in the complex litigation department. He is past Presiding Judge of his court’s Appellate Division, and was a member of California’s Judicial Council task forces and working groups on appellate division rules, temporary judges, electronic discovery, e-filing, and electronic access. Judge Karnow was a member of the California Supreme Court Committee on Judicial Ethics Opinions, and of the Judicial Council’s Committee on Civil & Small Claims, chairing the subcommittee on discovery and rules reform, assisting in drafting rules on e.g., case management, electronic discovery, sealing records, and summary judgment. 

Judge Karnow is a graduate of Harvard College and his J.D. is from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an editor of the Law Review.  He clerked for U.S. District Judge Louis Pollak (E.D.PA.), was an assistant U.S. Attorney, and is author of or contributor to 16 books in the legal field, including his Litigation In Practice and is co-author of the California’s leading treatise on civil procedure, Rutter Guide-Civil Procedure Before Trial, as well as other books and articles including on the legal process, discovery, experts, settlement, class actions, summary judgment, statistics, implicit bias, bail, and artificial intelligence.  Judge Karnow has lectured at law schools including Yale, University of San Francisco, Stanford, Hastings, and New York University, and taught civil litigation to new and experienced California judges. He received the California Judges Association’s Bernard Jefferson Award for Distinguished Service in Judicial Education, and is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI).