Cynthia L. Loo has been a jurist with the Los Angeles County Superior Court since 2000.  In January 2005 she received the “Judge of the Year” award from the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court’s Bar Association.  On April 26, 2008, the Los Angeles Times noted “she earns high marks from attorneys on all sides for her handling of juvenile cases … Loo is an asset to juvenile court, an assignment that ought to be highly sought but seldom is.”

Cynthia is a 1990 graduate of the University of Southern California School of Law. While in law school, Cynthia was a legal intern at AYUDA, a non-profit agency assisting low-income individuals in family law, immigration, domestic violence, juvenile and landlord tenant matters.  She was an extern and research attorney for the late U.S. District Court Judge Edward Rafeedie, as well as a law clerk at the ACLU and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Cynthia worked from 1991 to 1999 at the Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles representing abused children in juvenile dependency matters. Prior to her judicial duties as a referee, she volunteered with the Legal Aid Foundation of LA’s Unlawful Detainer Equal Access Project as well as the LA County Superior Court / LA County Bar Association Barristers’ Domestic Violence Project, where she currently still volunteers.

Cynthia has been an adjunct law professor at the Peoples College of Law (PCL) for eight years where she has taught juvenile / family law, criminal procedure, and evidence. PCL is a non-profit law school that trains socially conscious community lawyers and was opened in part to give those historically denied access to legal training, such as working people, women, and people of color, an opportunity to go to law school. Tuition is affordable because the professors donate their salaries back to the law school. Cynthia is also an adjunct law professor at the University of La Verne College of Law and teaches a course on juvenile and family law.

Cynthia was honored for her teaching at PCL with a “Teachers Making A Difference Award” at the 2011 Cherry Blossom Festival and a “Community Leadership Award” by the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center. Additionally, she was honored with the 2012 Youth Advocacy Award at the 6^th Annual Stonewall Hero Awards.

Cynthia is currently the Vice-Chair of the State Bar’s influential Council on Access and Fairness and the immediate past chair of its Judicial Committee. She is co-chair of the Multicultural Bar Alliance the approximately 19 women and minority bars in the LA area, and President of the Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance.

She has spoken to numerous community groups such as the Altadena NAACP, Asian Pacific Women’s Center, East LA Parent Project, Antelope Valley Coalition Against Injustice, Western Justice Center Foundation, Asian Youth Center, St. Peter Armenian Church Youth Ministries, Rotary Club, Power of Love Christian Fellowship, Optimist Club, OUTLaw, Los Angeles Chinese-American Sheriff Advisory Committee, and the Los Angeles County Department of Probation. She has spoken regarding juvenile justice, domestic violence, gang violence, “Three Strikes” Law, elimination of bias, sexual harassment, career planning and diversity in the legal profession.

Cynthia has been requested to submit articles to publications such as Gavel to Gavel, the Los Angeles County Superior Court's judicial magazine; The Bench, the official magazine of the California Judge's Association; Valley Lawyer, the official publication of the San Fernando Valley Bar Association; Los Angeles Lawyer, the magazine of the Los Angeles County; CWL News, a publication of California Women Lawyers; and Citations, the official magazine of the Ventura County Bar Association.

Cynthia was appointed to the Superior Court in 2000 and initially was assigned to hear family law and juvenile matters. On April 13, 2006, the Daily Journal noted “[H]er sensitivity to the community's needs slowly won people over, lawyers said. ‘They embraced her for her compassion and judicial nature … She wasn't just a person who comes out of the back room and disappears and is not responsive to the community.’"

Since 2005 she has presided over juvenile delinquency cases in the Eastlake Juvenile Courthouse in East Los Angeles. In an article in which she was profiled in LA Youth, it concluded, "One day in one court isn't enough for me to understand the whole court system, but by the time we left, I had learned a lot about the mercy a judge can have. Judge Loo wasn't only fair; she was respectful, and she wanted to help teenagers live meaningful lives."