Alameda County Superior Court Judge Charles Smiley was appointed to his judgeship in 2012. From 2016 through 2019, he served as presiding judge of the juvenile courts. In July 2019, he left that position to prepare for his upcoming role as assistant presiding judge of the Alameda County Superior Court, where he will lead the county’s collaborative and problem solving courts division. Smiley began his legal career as an attorney in the office of the county public defender. In 2007, he was selected by the judges of the Alameda County Superior Court to serve as a court commissioner presiding over family law, restraining order, traffic and small claims cases.

Outside of the courtroom, Smiley worked as adjunct faculty at his alma mater, UC Hastings College of the Law and presently serves as a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. In 2016, he joined the faculty of the state’s judicial ethics program. Smiley has served on statewide legal committees, has helped lead various bar associations as an executive board member and received awards of distinction for his contributions, including the Hon. Thelton Henderson Judicial Excellence Award from the Charles Houston Bar, the 2018 Hon. Bernard S. Jefferson Judge of the Year Award from the California Association of Black Lawyers, and the 2019 ICWA Implementation Champions Award from the Tribal Justice Collaborative. Smiley completed his undergraduate studies in 1989 at UC Berkeley.