ESTATE PLANNING COUNCIL OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY

Judge Kenneth Fernandez has served on the Riverside Superior Court bench since February 2004, when he was appointed as a Superior Court Commissioner.  He was elevated by Governor Brown to Superior Court Judge in 2018. Over the last 22 years on the bench, he has had assignments in Probate, Family Law, Juvenile Dependency, and Criminal Law.  For the last seven years, he has heard a full-time Probate calendar of Estates, Trusts, Conservatorships, Guardianships, Minor’s Compromise, and Elder Abuse Restraining Orders. In 2021, he became the Supervising Judge of the Probate Division.  He also serves on his court’s Executive Committee and ADR Committee.  Judge Fernandez taught the course on Attorney Fees for the Center for Judicial Education & Research Probate Institute in September 2022 and that same month was a presenter for the CEB course “Judges Speak – Practice Before the California Probate Court.”  He is also a frequent presenter to the Riverside County Bar Association Estate Planning/Probate section and the Desert Bar Association Probate section.  Judge Fernandez was a member of the California Judges Association Ethics Committee from 2005 to 2007 and taught Qualifying Judicial Ethics (QE3) for the Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER) from 2006 to 2008.  He graduated from the University of California, Davis Law School in 1992.  He received his Bachelor of Arts in Social Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1988.