BIOGRAPHY
Kermit Marsh is a lifelong resident of Orange County. Kermit is an attorney in private practice with eighteen years experience, a City Councilman for the City of Westminster, and Chairman of the Board of Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center.
Kermit attended Westminster High School, from which he graduated as Valedictorian in 1983. After high school, Kermit proceeded to Stanford University on a National Merit Scholarship. Graduating from Stanford in 1987, he completed dual majors in both Economics and History, with Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Epsilon honors. Upon completing his Bachelor’s Degree at Stanford, Kermit attended the prestigious Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. At Boalt, Kermit received an Oralist’s Commendation and served as an Appellate Advocacy Advisor, as a Moot Court Instructor, and as a Director on the Moot Court Board.
Upon receiving his Doctorate of Jurisprudence in 1990, Kermit promptly passed the California Bar Examination and returned home to Orange County.
For nearly a decade, Kermit served as the Defendants’ Liaison Counsel in the Judicial Council Coordinated Fertility Litigation. This action arose out of the discovery by UCI Medical Center of misappropriation of human eggs and embryos by the Center for Reproductive Health. The Coordinated Fertility Litigation involved more than 150 separate lawsuits. Kermit’s honesty and professionalism in the Coordinated Fertility Litigation has been recognized by a former counterpart among the Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel, the Honorable Joe Dunn, former California State Senator, who has endorsed Kermit’s candidacy for Superior Court Judge.
Kermit’s legal accomplishments include the successful representation of the City of Newport Beach and its Police Department in Teter v. City of Newport Beach. In Teter, Kermit successfully persuaded the California Supreme Court to restore the statutory full immunity for law enforcement and the taxpayers for injuries to and by prisoners in local jail facilities, protecting taxpayers from millions of dollars in potential future claims. He was also successful in persuading the California Supreme Court to overturn the anti-law enforcement decision in Meyer v. City of Oakland, which had been used as precedent to ignore the unambiguous immunities provided for law enforcement and improperly substituted the judgment of appellate justices for that of the legislature.
Kermit owns his own law practice, which represents clients throughout California. In addition to his business litigation practice, Kermit has broad experience defending the taxpayers against excessive liability claims. The Journal of Law and Politics and Los Angeles Magazine have previously honored Kermit as a Southern California SuperLawyer.
Kermit has represented clients in a very broad range of forums, including: the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals; the California Medical Board; the California State Board of Equalization; the United States District Court for the Central District of California; the United States District Court for the Northern District of California; the United States District Court for Arizona (pro hac vice); the United States District Court for Nevada (pro hac vice); the United States District Court for Oregon (pro hac vice); the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit; the California Superior Courts; the California Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Districts; the California Supreme Court; and, numerous arbitration and mediation panels.
For the past ten years, Kermit has served as a City Councilman for the City of Westminster. In 2004, Kermit set the record for the largest number of votes ever received by a Westminster candidate for city office. This broke the previous record established in 2000, also by Kermit.
As a Councilman, Kermit gathered a three member majority to push through a one-fifth reduction in the City Utility Tax paid by Westminster residents and businesses. As a Councilman, Kermit consistently opposed any increase in taxes, and he never voted to impose an assessment district or to incur long term debt to cover short term expenses. Kermit believes that the problem with government finance is not insufficient funding, but runaway spending.
When Westminster adopted its Infrastructure Revitalization Plan (IRP), Kermit insisted on protecting private property rights by prohibiting the use of eminent domain in the IRP, and he insisted on a three year cap on debt to prevent irresponsible long term borrowing. Kermit authored the language for both provisions. Since its inception in 2000, the IRP has provided millions of dollars for new infrastructure, with no increase in taxes. Over the past eight years, Westminster has sealed, coated or repaved more than ninety percent (90%) of its residential streets.
Kermit has served on numerous Orange County Transportation Authority committees, including the West County Cities Policy Committee for Measure M Funds (GMA 6), the OCTA I-405 Major Investment Study Policy Working Group/Board Committee, the OCTA Elected Officials Committee, and the OCTA West Orange County Project Definition Study Policy Committee. He has also served on the Orange County Council of Governments and is a Director on the Orange County Fire Authority Board.
Kermit’s family has a history of service to law enforcement, so it is no surprise that fighting crime has been a top priority for Kermit. On the Westminster City Council, he has championed innovative anti-gang programs, including the nationally recognized T.A.R.G.E.T. program, and he has supported active coordination of the Westminster Police Department with other branches of law enforcement, including the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the California Attorney General’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Kermit’s solid and intelligent support for law enforcement has made him the only civil attorney running for Judge endorsed by Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.
Kermit is a strong advocate of giving back to the community by serving others. Kermit is a past President of the Boys and Girls Club of Westminster, in which he played as a youth. He has also served as Chairman of the Boy Scouts of America for the Orange Frontier District, and he currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Kermit serves as Chairman of the Board of Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center. He is also a Life Member of the Westminster Historical Society and a Charter Member of the Kiwanis Club. Kermit is former Chaplain of the Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani (The Knights Templar).
Kermit met his beautiful wife, Wendy, through his legal career. Wendy serves as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of a prominent real estate development company, based in Orange County, and she is former President of the Organization of Chinese Americans, Greater Los Angeles Chapter. Kermit and Wendy have three children, Dermot, Connor and Morgan, who, along with Kermit’s many nieces and nephews, represent the fourth generation of the Marsh family in Orange County. By his past public service, and by his candidacy for Superior Court Judge, Kermit hopes to preserve Orange County as the best community in the world, for his children, and for yours.
