Karen L. Stevenson Appointed as United States Magistrate Judge for the Central District of California

The United States District Court for the Central District of California announces the appointment of Karen L. Stevenson as a United States Magistrate Judge.  Judge Stevenson, who was sworn in on August 10, 2015, will sit in Los Angeles in the Court’s Western Division. She succeeds retired Magistrate Judge Margaret A. Nagle.

Before her selection as a Magistrate Judge, Judge Stevenson was Of Counsel with Buchalter Nemer, where she concentrated her practice on complex commercial litigation, with an emphasis on securities litigation and defense of financial services institutions. Additionally, Judge Stevenson has expertise in insurance coverage for policyholders, e-discovery, and data breach/cybersecurity matters. She was nominated as one of the Top 100 Women Litigators by the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles and in March 2015 was named by Savoy Magazine one of the nation’s Most Influential Black Lawyers.  She also served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Bar Association Litigation Section’s Litigation News on-line and print publication.  She was named a Super Lawyer (Rising Star) in 2005, 2007 and 2008.

Judge Stevenson graduated with Distinction from Stanford Law School in 1998. Prior to attaining her Doctor of Jurisprudence, Judge Stevenson was a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College in Oxford, England where she received an M.A. in European History. A member of Phi Beta Kappa and a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she also won the Jim Tatum Award for outstanding scholar and athlete.  She has published numerous articles and publications on topics such as litigating in the social networking era and e-discovery.

Including the position now occupied by Judge Stevenson, the Central District of California has 24 authorized full-time and one part-time Magistrate Judge positions. The Central District of California is comprised of the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. It serves approximately 19.6 million people – nearly half the population of the state of California.

KIRY K. GRAY

ACTING CLERK OF COURT