Christopher R. Bowen has been a Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Contra Costa since December 2010.  He is currently the supervising judge at the George D. Carroll Courthouse in Richmond, where he is designated as a direct calendar judge for felony cases.  Previously, Judge Bowen completed rotations in the criminal calendar, criminal trial, and family law divisions.  He was assigned to the family law from 2013-2017, and was supervising family law judge from 2016-2017.  He has lectured frequently on intimate partner violence and restraining orders in family and criminal law contexts, including presentations at the National LGBT Bar Association’s Lavender Law Conference and for the California Association of Certified Family Law Specialists. Judge Bowen is 1990 graduate of Santa Clara University.  He received his J.D. in 1993 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was Articles Editor for the Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law and a regular contributor to the Virginia Law Weekly.  He is a director of the International Association of LGBTQ+ Judges and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, California Chapter. Prior to his appointment to the bench, he was an attorney in the Contra Costa County Office of the Public Defender for 16 years.  As a lawyer, he completed 13 years of criminal trial work, including homicide, special circumstances, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault cases.  He also handled juvenile matters in both dependency and delinquency court.  Judge Bowen was previously a Certified Criminal Law Specialist with the State Bar of California. Judge Bowen uses the pronouns “he/him/his”.