The El Dorado County Superior Court is pleased to announce the swearing in of newly elected Superior Court Judge Gary S. Slossberg.

On June 7, 2022, El Dorado County voters elected Gary S. Slossberg to fill the empty seat left by the retirement of the Honorable Kenneth J. Melikian on September 3, 2022. Judge Melikian was appointed to the El Dorado Superior Court in March of 2009 and most recently presided over criminal trials in Department 2. We thank Judge Melikian for his service to El Dorado County and wish him the best in retirement, he will be truly missed.

Judge Slossberg was elected after having served as the Court Commissioner since November of 2020. During this assignment, he heard a variety of cases including Family Law, Probate, Traffic, Juvenile Delinquency and Dependency, and Civil/Small Claims.

Previously, Judge Slossberg was employed as an attorney with the Judicial Council of California in support of the AB 1058 Child Support Program, where, among other tasks, he coordinated the program’s statewide child support training conference, including leading its transition to an entirely virtual conference due to the health crisis. Prior to this employment, Judge Slossberg served the El Dorado Superior Court as the Family

Law Facilitator and Self-Help Attorney and also served as a temporary judge handling traffic and small claims matters. He previously worked as a legal services attorney providing free legal representation to low-income clients primarily in family law matters, first at the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice and later at Live Violence Free in South Lake Tahoe.

Judge Slossberg has been very active in the community, presenting to legal professionals on working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence, on tax law as applied to child support calculations, and on updates to child support case law. He also was a volunteer law instructor at People’s College of Law, teaching courses on

corporations, professional responsibility, community property, and philosophy of the law. He previously served as a board member on the Hollywood United and East Hollywood Neighborhood Councils, the Legal Aid Association of California, and the Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, where he led the drafting of the organization’s founding charter. He was the committee chair of his son’s cub scout pack and interviews applicants to Harvard College as part of the Harvard Club of Sacramento’s Alumni Interviewing Panel. During law school, Judge Slossberg coordinated spring break trips to Haiti, Guatemala, and Cuba to provide assistance to legal services organizations there. In 2015, he was honored with an Award of Merit from the California Commission on Access to Justice and the Legal Aid Association of California.

Judge Slossberg received his Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School, where he received the Gary Bellow Public Service Award. He went on to receive a Master’s in Elementary Education from Loyola Marymount University. He also has a Bachelor’s in Psychology and a Master’s in Political Science from the University of Florida, where he was a Valedictorian for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and honored as the Most Outstanding Male Leader of the 1998 Graduating Class.

Judge Slossberg has been assigned to Department 9 by Presiding Judge Vicki Ashworth where he will hear Civil and Probate matters.

For more information, please visit the Court’s website at https://www.eldorado.courts.ca.gov/.