Full Time Faculty

Justice Halim Dhanidina (Ret.)

Dean & Professor of Law

(714) 459-1168

DEGREES

Certificate in Corporate Governance, University of California, Los Angeles Anderson School of Management
J.D., University of California, Los Angeles School of Law
B.A., Pomona College

BIOGRAPHY

Justice Halim Dhanidina (Ret.) is the Dean of Western State College of Law at Westcliff University. A distinguished jurist and a trailblazer in the California legal community, Dean Dhanidina brings decades of experience from the bench, private practice, and academia to lead Western State in its mission of providing a practice-ready legal education.

Prior to his appointment at Western State, Dean Dhanidina was a mediator and arbitrator at Signature Resolution in Los Angeles. He most recently practiced in litigation as a partner at Werksman Jackson and Quinn LLP in Los Angeles, CA and Umberg Zipser LLP in Irvine, CA where he focused on commercial litigation, appeals, criminal investigations and trials, and arbitration.

Prior to his time in private practice, Dean Dhanidina served in the judiciary as an associate justice for the Second District of the California Court of Appeal where he was the first South Asian American to sit as an appellate justice in the State of California and the first Muslim appellate level judge in the United States. He was previously appointed to the L.A. County Superior Court, making him the first Muslim judge in California history. As an attorney, he prosecuted cases for the L.A. County District Attorney while serving on the boards of APABA- LA and SABA-SC. He has taught as an adjunct professor of law at the University of California at Los Angeles, University of California at Irvine and Chapman University and has taught judicial education courses for judges statewide. He is an independent director for the Fidelity National Financial Group and a board member for the Public Law Center, Beverly Hills Bar Association, Muslim-Jewish NewGround, and the Orange County School of the Arts, and he sits on the Advisory Boards of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association, South Asian Bar Association, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

Dean Dhanidina earned a B.A. in International Relations from Pomona College in 1994, where he founded the Muslim Students Association and received the Senior Service Award, and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law in 1997, which named him the Asian Pacific Islander Law Students Association Alumnus of the Year in 2013 and was listed as one of the law school’s 75 Distinguished Alumni for its 75th anniversary. He was a founding member of APABA-LA, and has received the South Asian Network’s Community Empowerment Award, the Muslim Public Affairs Council Foundation’s Community Leadership Award, the Muslim Legal Fund of America’s Trailblazer in Justice Award, and the South Asian Bar Association Foundation’s Trailblazer Award. In 2017, Dean Dhanidina was recognized by the California State Assembly for his contributions to the legal profession, and he is also a recipient of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Daniel K. Inouye Trailblazer Award.