Judge kelvin Filer is a  Superior Court judge in the Southern California city of Compton. As a product of the same neighborhood, Filer is a powerful role model who has devoted himself to “reaching out and helping others as I’ve been helped.” Filer grew up in the Compton neighborhood during the 1960’s and attributes much of his success to his parents. “Higher education was not an option in my family, it was expected,” said Filer, who earned a B.A. in politics from UCSC and graduated from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. He worked in the state Public Defender’s Office in Los Angeles before entering private practice in Compton.  In July of 1993, he was selected to the judicial bench as a commissioner for the Compton Municipal Court and later served as a Superior Court Commissioner after unification of the courts in 2000. He was named to the California Superior Court in 2002 by then-Governor Gray Davis.   Compton Senior High School , class of  1973.