MEET RYAN DIBBLE

In 2025, Ryan was selected by the judges of the Superior Court to serve as a commissioner. In that role, he is already performing the job of a judge in many respects, with many of the same responsibilities as he would have when elected as a judge. He seeks election to become a judge to increase the ways he can serve the public as a judicial officer.

Every day as a Superior Court commissioner, Ryan hears and decides cases involving issues of high importance to the members of the public who enter his courtroom. He strives to be meticulous, thorough, and even-handed, and to leave the public with confidence that every person who enters has an opportunity to be heard. Ryan recognizes that while it is frequently not possible for everyone to leave a courtroom satisfied with a decision made by a judge, a judge should always seek to have everyone leave that courtroom with the sense that the process was as fair and dignified as possible.

Since graduating from law school, Ryan has dedicated his entire career to public service. He earned a full academic scholarship to USC and while earning degrees in accounting and political science, he was inspired by his professors and an internship at the United States Attorney’s Office to pursue a legal education. In 2006, Ryan began his 19-year career with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. During that time, he prosecuted cases ranging from petty theft to murder, with assignments in Long Beach, Compton, Whittier, and downtown Los Angeles, and in several special assignments in complex litigation divisions, including the Major Narcotics Division, the Gang Homicide Division, and the Justice System Integrity Division.

At the District Attorney’s Office, Ryan tried over 70 cases to juries, including gang-related murder cases, and handled hundreds of other hearings before judges of the Superior Court. He fought against the opioid crisis by prosecuting medical doctors and others who illegally prescribed addictive opioid drugs. He assisted and trained local and federal law enforcement in obtaining wiretap orders and search warrants to investigate large-scale narcotics trafficking and gang murders, and investigated and prosecuted cases involving police misconduct and excessive force. Ryan worked extensively on behalf of the most vulnerable members of our community, for whom violence and its consequences are so devastating.

Ryan previously volunteered for Project LEAD through Teach Democracy, where he instructed fifth-grade classes on issues related to the criminal justice system, the law, resisting peer pressure, and bullying. He continues to volunteer in Teach Democracy’s mock trial program for middle and high school students. Ryan encourages these young students to be each other’s allies, pursue their dreams, and prioritize their families and education.

Ryan is also a founding board member and director of The Little Lebowski Urban Achievers Scholarship Foundation. This non-profit scholarship fund provides financial assistance and mentorship to college-bound high school graduates of the Synergy Quantum Academy in South Los Angeles. Scholarship recipients have included many who are the first in their families to attend college.

Ryan has not only worked in the courtroom but also as an instructor and speaker on numerous topics. To build upon that teaching experience, he instructs law students at the USC Gould School of Law’s online Master of Studies in Law and International LLM program as an Adjunct Lecturer in Law, and has lectured several times on prosecutorial ethics to law students at USC.

Ryan’s career has helped him develop an indispensable perspective on the range of cases coming through the criminal justice system, the appropriate course of action, and the role of our judicial system in handling different types of cases, and what it means to pursue, and ensure, justice for all involved – be they a civil litigant, a crime victim, the accused, or the community at large.

In his 19-year career as a prosecutor, Ryan has gained a solid understanding of what makes a fair judge, and has now begun putting that into practice as a Superior Court commissioner. He’s seen the best judges acting as fair-minded listeners – applying intricate legal principles while taking a balanced approach. It is Ryan’s goal as a judge to be well-versed not only in the technical aspects of the law but also in the human aspect of instilling confidence in our courts.

Ryan grew up in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County, where he now resides with his wife, Nicole, who is a practicing family law attorney, and their two young children.