Meet Family Law Commissioners and Learn About the Selection Process with Judge Kaufman and Judge Weiner

Commissioner Susanne Blossom was elected by the judges of the Los Angeles Superior Court on March 20, 2026.  She practiced in court daily for nearly 20 years as an LA County public defender and served in the Chief Executive Office of LA County in civil rights litigation compliance and policy implementation related to LA County jails in the 3 years prior to her election.

Commissioner Wendy C. Shapero is a commissioner for the Los Angeles County Superior Court, elected by a vote of the court’s judges on March 14, 2025, with assignments that include family law matters. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her J.D. from Southwestern Law School in 1998, where she was named to the dean’s list, served as an associate editor of the Southwestern University Law Review, and received the American Jurisprudence Award for Constitutional Law I. Prior to her appointment, Shapero spent 26 years (February 1999 to February 2025) as a Deputy City Attorney with the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney, during which she also served on the Executive Board of the Los Angeles City Attorneys Association and later as its treasurer.

Commissioner David K. Schultz was recently appointed to the Los Angeles County Superior Court after more than 30 years of litigation experience, including a decade as a shareholder in Polsinelli’s Los Angeles office. A State Bar-certified specialist in appellate law, he built a distinguished practice handling high-exposure trial and appellate matters across California, Nevada, Hawaii, Arizona, and Utah, earning a rare appointment to the bench-track commissioner role as a civil practitioner. His appellate work, including numerous published decisions, has helped shape litigation and business strategy for clients throughout his career.

Marc André Bertet is a Commissioner of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, currently assigned to a Family Law Home Court at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. He was a Partner at Hersh Mannis LLP and a Certified Family Law Specialist (California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization), with over 20 years of dedicated family law practice since his admission to the California Bar in 2002.

Prior to his election to the bench, Commissioner Bertet represented a broad range of clients — from at-home parents to entrepreneurs and renowned entertainers — in
marital dissolution and parentage matters, with particular skill in litigating and settling complex, high-net-worth disputes involving child custody, child support, spousal/partner support, and property division.

He is active in the legal community, having served on the LACBA Family Law Executive Committee, where he organized continuing education programs and lectured fellow attorneys, and as a volunteer Daily Settlement Officer for the Los Angeles County Superior Court. He has lectured for various legal organizations on family law issues and has been published in educational materials on the topic.

His achievements include consecutive years of Super Lawyers recognition, a Top Attorney honor from Los Angeles Magazine, and recognition for his LGBTQ advocacy work.

Commissioner Bertet earned his J.D. from Loyola Law School in 2001 and graduated summa cum laude from UCLA’s Honors College in 1997.

Judge Shelley Kaufman was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court by California Governor Jerry Brown in December 2013. She has been assigned to Family Law Department 60 at Stanley Mosk since she was sworn in on January 17, 2014. Managing a busy calendar is nothing unusual to Judge Kaufman as she managed a demanding and complex civil case load before joining the bench. Judge Kaufman was a partner at the renowned firm Geragos & Geragos, with its main office in Los Angeles, representing a diverse group of civil litigants and criminal defendants.

Timothy Weiner is a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge, presently assigned to Department L of the Torrance Courthouse, where he presides over a Family Law home court. Judge Weiner is also the Supervising Judge of the Southwest District. Prior to joining the Family Law bench, Judge Weiner was assigned to the court’s Criminal Division, where he presided over misdemeanor arraignments and trials.

Judge Weiner was appointed to the court by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. on October 11, 2018. Prior to his appointment, Judge Weiner served as a Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner for approximately two and one-half years. Judge Weiner is a member of the Los Angeles County Superior Court Bench and Bar, Community Outreach, Judicial Mentorship, and Security Committees.

Judge Weiner graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1992 with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Sociology. After graduation, Judge Weiner worked from 1993 to 1998 as the director of operations for a marine electronics company. In 2000, Judge Weiner earned his J.D. from Southwestern Law School, where he served on the board of governors for the Moot Court Honors Program and was president of the Criminal Law Society. In 2010, Judge Weiner earned his LL.M. in Prosecutorial Science from the Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law.

Prior to becoming a judicial officer, Judge Weiner was a Deputy Attorney General at the California Department of Justice, where he served for 15 years as a state prosecutor. He prosecuted misdemeanor and felony matters, and has appeared and argued before the California Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, California Court of Appeal, and the state and federal trial courts.

Judge Weiner is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the California State Guard’s JAG Corps and a member of the Southwestern Law School Alumni Association Board of Directors.