Thursday, March 31, 2011
Page 3
Sandra Klein Appointed to Bankruptcy Court for Central District
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski yesterday announced the appointment of Sandra R. Klein to serve as a judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California.
Klein, 50, is scheduled to be sworn into office April 22 and maintain chambers in Los Angeles.
She fills a vacancy created in January by the retirement of Judge Kathleen H. Thompson, who is currently serving as a recalled bankruptcy judge in the Central District.
Kozinski remarked that Klein “knows bankruptcy law well, has worked on a significant variety of bankruptcy related matters, and has demonstrated a commitment to public service.”
Klein has served as acting chief of the Criminal Enforcement Unit of the Department of Justice, U.S. Trustee Program, since 2009. Her work focuses on increasing detection and prosecution of criminal conduct in the bankruptcy system, according to a Ninth Circuit press release.
Prior to this, Klein was a bankruptcy fraud criminal coordinator for the program, and she worked as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California from 1997 to 2003.
Before entering the public sector, Klein was a litigation associate with O’Melveny & Myers LLP, from 1995 to 1997 and clerked for Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Arthur L. Alarcón from 1994 to 1995.
Klein has also taught a course in white-collar crime as a part-time adjunct professor at Loyola Law School in 2003, 2005, and 2006.
She co-chaired the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles’s Law Student Mentoring Committee from 2004-5 and served as a volunteer instructor for National Institute of Trial Advocacy training in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2010.
A native of Boston, Klein graduated magna cum laude from the University of Massachusetts in 1982 before attending Loyola Law School, where she served as the comment editor for the Loyola International & Comparative Law Journal. Klein graduated from Loyola magna cum laude in 1992 and joined the State Bar that same year. Klein also holds a master’s degree from UCLA.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California serves seven Southern California counties. The court is authorized 24 judges, which includes three authorized temporary judgeships, and received 138,585 bankruptcy filings in fiscal year 2010, up 42.2 percent from the previous year.
Judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit have statutory responsibility for selecting and appointing bankruptcy judges in the nine western states that comprise the Ninth Circuit.
The court uses a comprehensive merit selection process for the initial appointment and for reappointments.
Bankruptcy judges serve a 14-year, renewable term, at a salary of $160,080, and handle all bankruptcy-related matters under the Bankruptcy Code.
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