Ex-Judge Bernard Lawler, Named to the Bench at Age 26, Dies at 71
Bernard Lawler, named to the Municipal Court bench in El Segundo when he was only 26, has died at his Westchester home of pulmonary problems.
Lawler, who retired in 1981 as a Superior Court judge, was 71 at his death Saturday.
A native of Los Angeles, Lawler attended Santa Clara, UCLA and Creighton universities before graduating from Georgetown University with a bachelor of laws degree. He was admitted to the State Bar in 1936 and practiced law in El Segundo before being appointed to the bench there.
During World War II he served with the FBI and resumed private practice before assuming the Municipal Court bench in San Pedro in 1953.
He served for a time as a Traffic Court judge in downtown Los Angeles and was named to Superior Court by Gov. Edmund G. (Pat ) Brown in 1961. That was the same year that a Superior Court was established in Torrance and Lawler was on that bench for the next 20 years.
His survivors include his wife, Helen, four sons, three daughters, a brother and sister and 15 grandchildren.
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