Magistrate Judge Lisa J. Cisneros joined the Court in September 2022, following fifteen years of practice as a litigator and attorney in government and public service. Since her appointment she has presided as a trial, discovery and settlement judge in cases involving areas of law such as employment, copyright, trade secret, trademark, civil rights and insurance. Judge Cisneros currently serves on the Local Rules and Community Education committees of the Court. In addition, she has participated in a variety of panels and presented at the Sedona Conference Working Group on eDiscovery and Electronic Document Management.

Immediately prior to joining the bench, she was a Deputy Attorney General at the California Department of Justice, where she represented the State of California and its agencies in complex affirmative and defensive litigation. She also led federal regulatory advocacy on behalf of the California Attorney General’s Office, often in coalition with other states, and managed investigations to enforce the California Child Abuse and Neglect Act. Earlier in her career, she clerked for U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, and practiced at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP and California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. In 2017, she was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown as a member of the California Fair Employment & Housing Council, where she promulgated regulations and conducted hearings.
Education:
Judge Cisneros earned her law degree from UC Berkeley School of Law and her undergraduate
degree with honors from Brown University