Judge Melissa C. Lyons: Professional Background and Legal Expertise

Hon. Melissa C. Lyons is a judge for the Los Angeles County Superior Court in California. She was elected to the bench on November 8, 2022.

Prior to her election, Lyons worked as a deputy district attorney with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office since 2006. During her sixteen-year tenure there, she served for two years at the Stuart House, where she was tasked with prosecuting sex crimes against children. Lyons also held an assignment in the Compton Sex Crimes Division and served as deputy-in-charge of the Compton Juvenile Division. For her work as a prosecutor, she was awarded the Michael P. Noyes Humanitarian Award by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in 2021.

Lyons received a B.S. in communication studies from Northwestern University in 2001. She went on to complete a J.D. at Loyola Law School in 2005. While a law student, she was a member of the Black Law Student’s Association’s Thurgood Marshall Trial Advocacy Team and the Byrne Trial Advocacy Team. Lyons continued on as a coach of the Loyola Law School Byrne Trial Advocacy Team after graduating from law school.

She has volunteered her time with the Summer Night Lights Program, which was sponsored by Los Angeles’ Gang Reduction and Youth Development Office. Lyons also distributed hair kits to African American foster children placed with non-black families and was a board member of the Global Girl Project.

Lyons was born in Jamaica and immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of eleven, where they settled in a small farming town in Iowa. In her free time, she has been active with Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art.