Karen L. Stevenson was appointed a U.S Magistrate Judge for the Central District of
California on August 10, 2015. Prior to joining the Court, Judge Stevenson was Of Counsel
in the Litigation Practice Group of Buchalter Nemer, APLC in Los Angeles, where she
specialized in complex commercial matters, including securities litigation, breach of
contract, breach of fiduciary duty, unfair competition, and insurance coverage for
policyholders. Judge Stevenson was lead counsel in high‐stakes disputes for national and
regional clients, including banks, institutional investors, and mortgage lenders. She
frequently speaks on electronic discovery, the admissibility of electronically stored
information, cybersecurity, and social media. She has been a featured presenter at the
Pincus “Federal Court Boot Camp” CLE programs 2013 – 2015.
Judge Stevenson has been a member of the Editorial Board of the ABA’s Litigation News
and Litigation Update since 2008 and served as Editor-in-Chief in 2014-15. She currently
serves on the L.A. County Bar Association Litigation Section Executive Committee. She is
a Trustee to the Rhodes Trust at Oxford University and the District Secretary for Rhodes
Scholarship selection committee in Southern California.
Judge Stevenson earned her J.D. with distinction at Stanford Law School. While at Stanford
Law, with her teammate, Ms. Stevenson won the Marian Rice Kirkwood Moot Court Award
for Best Team of Advocates. She earned an M.A. in European History at Oxford University,
England as a Rhodes Scholar and received her B.A. in History (Phi Beta Kappa) at the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where she was a Morehead Scholar.
Judge Stevenson was selected a Southern California Super Lawyer Rising Star three times
in 2005, 2007 and 2008 and nominated by the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
as one of the Top 100 Women Litigators in Los Angeles. She was named by Savoy
Magazine as one of the nation’s Most Influential Black Lawyers of 2015.
