Lance Ito - Current Career

Current Career

Ito continues to hold office as a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge. Although not himself fluent in any foreign language, Ito is regarded as an expert in the area of the use of spoken-language interpreters in courtroom proceedings and regularly teaches at the Judicial College of California and Chapman University School of Law.

Ito declines to give interviews regarding the O.J. Simpson trial because the Canons of Ethics that guide the conduct of California trial-court judges forbid comment upon pending matters or matters likely to come before the courts. Ito has considered writing a book about the Simpson trial, but doing so would require resigning from his judicial seat. Judge Ito believed that resigning from his position would be a dishonor to his family. He has noted his disbelief that public interest in the trial extended through the "turgid" DNA section of the trial, and has used his status to work on issues of judicial reform, such as increasing the number of translators and enforcing rules for foreign national defendants in the court.