The United States District Court for the Central District of California announces the appointment of Steve Kim as a United States Magistrate Judge. Judge Kim, who was sworn in on April 11, 2016, will sit in Los Angeles in the Court’s Western Division. He succeeds retired Magistrate Judge Carla M. Woehrle.

Before his appointment as a Magistrate Judge, Judge Kim was the Regional Managing Director at Stroz Friedberg, LLC, in charge of the firm’s three West Coast offices. Specializing in law and technology, Judge Kim counseled law firms, government agencies, and corporations on cybersecurity, data privacy, digital forensics and electronic discovery. He led and managed hundreds of matters involving trade secret litigation, internal corporate or forensics investigations, government subpoenas and search warrants, and data breach responses and notifications. Judge Kim advised lawyers, executives and corporate boards on information governance, digital risk assessments, incident response, and cybersecurity compliance.

Prior to working at Stroz Friedberg, LLC, Judge Kim served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office. He prosecuted cases involving violent and white-collar crimes, immigration offenses, and drug trafficking charges. He also investigated and charged defendants for computer crimes, identity theft, and intellectual property violations. Judge Kim authored numerous appellate briefs filed in the Ninth Circuit and successfully argued several cases in oral argument. Before his work as a federal prosecutor, Judge Kim was a civil litigator handling complex litigation and appeals at Munger, Tolles & Olson, LLP.

Judge Kim received his Bachelor of Arts in Letters, with Special Distinction, from the University of Oklahoma, where he was the recipient of the Carl Albert Award for the Most Distinguished Graduate in the College of Arts & Sciences. He graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served on the law review. After law school, Judge Kim clerked for Judge Sidney R. Thomas of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and District Judge Stephen V. Wilson of the Central District of California.

Including the position now occupied by Judge Kim, the Central District of California has 24 authorized full-time Magistrate Judges and one part-time position. 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
CLERK OF COURT