The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California Monday announced the appointment of Maria A. Audero as a magistrate judge.
Audero, who was sworn in Monday, will sit in downtown Los Angeles, the court’s Western Division. She succeeds former U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Wistrich.
Before her appointment, Audero worked as a partner at Paul Hastings LLP, where she litigated state and federal wage-and-hour nationwide class and collective actions, discrimination and pay equity cases, equal employment opportunity cases, and government contract affirmative action matters.
Before working at Paul Hastings, Audero worked as an associate at Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP, where she practiced employment law, and at Barger & Wolen LLP, where she litigated insurance bad faith matters.
Audero has served on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Inner City Law Center, the National Employment Law Council, the Employment Round Table of Southern California, and the Southern California Advisory Board of the Women in Law Enforcement Forum.
She also has held leadership positions in various bar associations and was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown as commissioner of the California Fair Political Practices Commission. In addition, Audero provided pro bono legal assistance to several organizations, including a Community of Friends, the ACLU of Southern California, Children’s Bureau of Southern California, Constitutional Rights Foundation, Junior Achievement of Southern California, and the Los Angeles County Bar Domestic Violence Project.
Magistrate judges assist district court judges by overseeing first appearances of criminal defendants, setting bail, handling misdemeanors and conducting other administrative duties.
The Central District of California includes the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.