Diana M. Kwok Appointed as United States Magistrate Judge for the Central District of California

The United States District Court for the Central District of California announces the appointment of Diana M. Kwok as a United States Magistrate Judge.  Judge Kwok, who was sworn in on March 23, 2026, will preside over matters in Los Angeles in the Court’s Western Division.  Judge Kwok succeeds former Magistrate Judge Jean P. Rosenbluth.

Before her appointment as a magistrate judge, Judge Kwok was a commercial litigator and white-collar defense attorney—most recently at McKool Smith, from 2025-2026, and previously at Sidley Austin LLP, from 2021-2023—serving both individual and corporate clients in complex commercial litigation disputes and regulatory and criminal investigations.  During her practice at Sidley, Judge Kwok played an active role in pursuing some of the firm’s pro bono matters, which included joining this Court’s Criminal Justice Act (“CJA”) Panel as a CJA Panel Attorney. 

Earlier in her career, Judge Kwok served as an Assistant United States Attorney for nearly a decade in Los Angeles, during which time she served in the office’s Environmental and Community Safety Crimes Section, and supervised new prosecutors as a Deputy Chief in the office’s General Crimes Section.  Judge Kwok also served as a Staff Attorney at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in Los Angeles, where she investigated publicly traded companies and individuals who were believed to have committed fraud on investors.  Judge Kwok also taught Legal Writing to LLM students at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, worked as an associate attorney at Manatt, Phelps, and Phillips, LLP in Los Angeles, California, and served as a Law Clerk to both the Honorable Percy Anderson and the late Honorable Ronald S.W. Lew of this Court.

Judge Kwok has served as a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Outstanding Jurist Committee; Asian Americans Advancing Justice Organization; California State Bar Litigation Section, Federal Courts Committee; and this Court’s Conviction and Sentence Alternatives (“CASA”) Program.  Judge Kwok has also served as the Co-Chair of United States Attorney’s Office Diversity Committee, and as the President, President-Elect, Executive Vice President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers’ Association. 

Judge Kwok obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from California State University, Los Angeles, in 2001, and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, in 2006.  Judge Kwok is a Stein Scholar, as well as a LeBouf Constitutional Scholar.

Including the position now occupied by Judge Kwok, the Central District of California has 24 full-time magistrate judge positions.  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 more than 19.3 million people, nearly half the population of the State of California.

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BRIAN D. KARTH
DISTRICT COURT EXECUTIVE / CLERK OF COURT