Cathy Ann Palumbo Bencivengo (born August 24, 1958) is a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of California The United States District Court for the Southern District of California (in case citations, S.D. Cal.) is a federal court in the Ninth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appe ...

Early life and education

Bencivengo was born Cathy Ann Palumbo in Teaneck, New Jersey. Bencivengo earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in 1980 from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

degree in 1981 from Rutgers. She then earned a Juris Doctor in 1988 from

University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law (MCL ...

Career

In 1988, Bencivengo joined a predecessor to the law firm

DLA Piper DLA Piper is a multinational law firm with offices in over 40 countries throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. In 2021, it had a total revenue of US$3.47 billion, an average profit per equity partner of U ...

as an associate and became a partner in 1996 where she remained until 2005.

Federal judicial service

In 2005, the judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California selected Bencivengo to be a

United States magistrate judge In United States federal courts, magistrate judges are judges appointed to assist U.S. district court judges in the performance of their duties. Magistrate judges generally oversee first appearances of criminal defendants, set bail, and conduc ...

. On May 11, 2011, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

nominated Bencivengo to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, to replace Judge Jeffrey T. Miller, who assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

in June 2010. She was confirmed by the Senate on February 9, 2012 by a 90–6 vote. She received her commission on February 10, 2012.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bencivengo, Cathy Ann 1958 births Living people 20th-century American women lawyers 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges 21st-century American women lawyers American people of Italian descent Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California New Jersey lawyers People from Teaneck, New Jersey Rutgers University alumni United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama United States magistrate judges University of Michigan Law School alumni