Hon. Bunmi O. Awoniyi was appointed to the Sacramento Superior Court by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. in 2012, and currently serves as Presiding Judge. She previously served four years as Supervising Judge of Family Law and Probate, and became Assistant Presiding Judge in 2022. Before her judicial appointment, she was a Certified Family Law Specialist and maintained a family law practice in Sacramento for 18 years.

Judge Awoniyi is a faculty member for the Judicial Council’s Center for Judicial Education and Research and was appointed as a voting member of the Judicial Council by Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero in 2024. She also teaches as an adjunct professor at Lincoln Law School.

She has received numerous honors, including:

• 2025 Sacramento County Bar Association, Judge of the Year
• 2025 Crystal Gavel Award, California Black Judges Association
• 2024 Bernard S. Jefferson Judge of the Year, California Association of Black Lawyers
• 2024 Frances Newell Judge of the Year, Women Lawyers of Sacramento
• 2018 Judge of the Year, Wiley Manuel Bar Association

Judge Awoniyi was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1988. She received the Pegasus International Lawyer Scholarship for young lawyers with the American and English Inns of Court, which initiated her California legal career.