Hon. Sandra Klein
Career Development & Life Balance
Judge Klein was appointed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California in April 2011. Before her appointment to the bench, Judge Klein worked for more than thirteen years for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Most recently, she served as the Acting Assistant Director, Office of Criminal Enforcement of the U.S. Trustee Program, where she focused nationally on increasing detection and prosecution of criminal conduct in the bankruptcy system. From 2003 to 2009, Judge Klein was a Bankruptcy Fraud Criminal Coordinator with the U.S. Trustee Program, responsible for assisting federal law enforcement agents and Assistant U.S. Attorneys with bankruptcy-related investigations and prosecutions. From 1997 to 2003, she was a special assistant U.S. Attorney in the Central District of California (on permanent detail from the U.S. Trustee Program), where she focused on complex white collar crime cases, and in particular, bankruptcy fraud cases.
Before joining the DOJ, Judge Klein served as a litigation associate with O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Judge Klein began her legal career as a Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Arthur L. Alarcón, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Honorable Lourdes G. Baird, Central District of California.
Judge Klein received her bachelor’s degree in music education, magna cum laude, from the University of Lowell, Lowell, MA, her JD, magna cum laude, from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, CA, where she served as a Senior Note and Comment Editor for the Loyola International and Comparative Law Journal, and her MBA with honors from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, Los Angeles, CA.
Judge Klein is the chairperson of the Bankruptcy Court’s Community Outreach Committee and a member of the Ninth Circuit Courts and Community Committee. In addition to be a member of the Board of Governors of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Judge Klein is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Bar Association, Los Angeles Chapter, and the Board of Governors of Loyola Law School.
