Halim Dhanidina

{{short description|American judge from California}}

{{Infobox judge

|honorific-prefix =

|name = Halim Dhanidina

|honorific-suffix =

|image = Halim Dhanidina.jpg

|alt =

|caption =

|office = Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Second District

|term_start = 2018

|term_end = March 31, 2021

|nominator =

|appointer = Jerry Brown

|predecessor =

|successor =

|office1 = Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court

|term_start1 = 2012

|term_end1 = 2018

|appointer1 = Jerry Brown

|birth_name = Al-Halim Dhanidina{{cite news |last=Gurza |first=Agustin |date=August 3, 2016 |title=Faith in the Law: As California's first Muslim judge, Halim Dhanidina '94 wants to be known not for his religion, but for his belief in the American legal system |url=https://magazine.pomona.edu/2016/summer/faith-in-the-law/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160810150826/https://magazine.pomona.edu/2016/summer/faith-in-the-law/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 10, 2016 |work=Pomona College Magazine |location=Claremont, California |access-date=December 28, 2019}}

|birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1972|09|20}}{{cite book |last=Hubbell |first=Martindale |date=March 2001 |title=Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory: California (A-R, Volume 2, 2001) |publisher=Martindale-Hubbell |isbn=9781561604395 }}United States Public Records, 1970-2009 (California, 2003-2007)

|birth_place = Chicago, Illinois

|education = Pomona College (BA)
University of California, Los Angeles (JD)

}}

Halim Dhanidina (born September 20, 1972) is an American lawyer and former judge from California. As of April 1, 2022, he is a partner at the criminal defense firm of Werksman Jackson & Quinn LLP in Los Angeles.{{cite news |last1=Mills |first1=James |title=Former Calif. Appellate Justice Joins Werksman Jackson - Law360 |url=https://www.law360.com/articles/1481563# |work=www.law360.com |publisher=LexisNexis |date=8 April 2022 |language=en}} He was a justice of the California Court of Appeal for the Second District. Appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court bench by Governor Jerry Brown in 2012, he is the first Muslim to ever be appointed judge in California.{{Cite press release| title = Governor Brown Appoints Eight to Los Angeles County Superior Court| publisher = Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.| access-date = 2012-12-26| date = 2012-05-18| url = http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=17552}} He is an Ismaili Shiite of Gujarati Indian heritage, his parents immigrating from Tanzania.{{cite news|author1=Jill Leovy|title=Faith informs work of state's first Muslim judge|url=http://www.latimes.com/local/great-reads/la-ca-c1-first-muslim-judge-20150202-story.html|newspaper=la times|access-date=19 October 2015|quote=His parents left Tanzania for Illinois before he was born. The family is Ismaili, a Shiite tradition that represents a progressive strand within Islam....Their tradition bears little resemblance to the media images of Muslims that bombarded Dhanidina through childhood. The Muslims he knew were "not here to change American society," he said. "They are here to be part of it. They buy in." But Dhanidina, who is of Gujarati Indian heritage, learned early to keep quiet when people talked of Islam. "It was always in a context that would make me defensive," he said.}}{{cite web|author1=Sunita Sohrabji|title=Brown Appoints California's First Muslim Superior Court Judge|url=http://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/brown-appoints-california-s-first-muslim-superior-court-judge/article_9e025585-b872-5e2a-be05-1af7b156f04a.html?mode=jqm|website=indiawest.com|access-date=19 October 2015|quote=The Chicago-born, Evanston, Ill.,-raised Dhanidina, whose Gujarati parents Lutaf and Mali emigrated from Tanzania to the U.S., in 1960, said that his 14 years as a deputy district attorney and being in court nearly every day have made him intimately familiar with how a courtroom works, including the rules that govern a trial.}}{{cite web|title=US First Muslim Superior Court Judge|url=http://www.onislam.net/english/news/americas/457498-us-first-muslim-superior-court-judge.html|website=www.onislam.net|access-date=20 October 2015|quote=CAIRO – In a major leap for the Muslim minority in the United States, a Muslim attorney was appointed to a California Superior Court judgeship, to be the first Muslim American on a California bench... Born in Chicago, Dhanidina is the son of Gujarati parents who emigrated from Tanzania to the US in 1960. A founding member of the Association of South Asian Prosecutors, Dhanidina spent 14 years as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney.}}