Federal Litigation Practice: Advancing Your Case Before Magistrate Judges

The Honorable Kandis A. Westmore was appointed as a Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in 2012. She is assigned to the Oakland Division.

Judge Westmore served as a law clerk with the Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office, before beginning her legal career at an Oakland-based boutique law firm specializing in plaintiffs’ civil rights litigation.

She joined the Oakland City Attorney’s Office in 1999 as a Deputy City Attorney. During her 13 year tenure with the City, she advised City agencies and served as both a trial attorney and a law and motion attorney, where she filed suit on behalf of the City and defended the City and its employees on a wide range of matters in federal and state trial and appellate courts, including civil rights, personal injury, inverse condemnation, labor and employment, and complex litigation. Judge Westmore has been publicly recognized by community organizations, the City of Oakland, and elected officials for her contributions and service to the City of Oakland and its residents.

Prior to taking the bench, Judge Westmore served as President-Elect of the Alameda County Bar Association (ACBA), and volunteered for the ACBA Volunteer Legal Services Corporation’s Pro Bono Program representing low-income individuals in family law cases. Judge Westmore currently serves as a member of the Northern District’s Community Outreach Committee and on the court’s Conviction Alternatives Program. She is also Immediate Past President of the Earl Warren American Inn of Court.

Judge Westmore received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989, and her J.D. from the University of San Francisco, School of Law in 1997, all while working full-time and being a wife and mother of two young children. As a law student, Judge Westmore served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Saundra Brown Armstrong of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Justin Singh Anand has served as a United States Magistrate Judge in the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta Division) since June 2012.

Before taking the bench, Judge Anand served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Atlanta for over eight years, and was the Deputy Chief of the Economic Crimes and Cybercrimes Section. He primarily prosecuted and supervised the prosecution of securities and corporate fraud, health care fraud, false claims, and tax cases. He prosecuted several high profile Atlanta-based Ponzi schemes and stock pump-and-dump schemes. While serving in that position, Judge Anand was a frequent speaker at events in the Atlanta legal community on topics including white collar criminal prosecutions, bank fraud, and securities fraud prosecutions and investigations.

Before his time as a prosecutor, Judge Anand was as a litigator in New York City at the leading Wall Street law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. His trial and arbitration-based practice focused on securities, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions litigation, and Governmental investigations and white collar defense work. He also worked on a wide variety of matters including patent and copyright infringement cases, international contract disputes, and defense of foreign sovereign nations and state-owned instrumentalities in U.S. and international commercial litigation. Judge Anand began his legal career as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, S.D.N.Y..

Judge Anand graduated from Swarthmore College and from Harvard Law School, from which he graduated magna cum laude.

Alicia M. Otazo-Reyes is a graduate of the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, where she obtained her Bachelors Degree in Science, summa cum laude and General Honors, with a Major in Mathematics and a Minor in Computer Science, in 1970. She received her Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from the University of Miami School of Law in 1991, where she was a member of the University of Miami Law Review and the Order of the Coif.

Ms. Otazo-Reyes served as Career Law Clerk to the Honorable Shelby Highsmith, United States District Judge, Southern District of Florida from 1991 to 2002.

Ms. Otazo-Reyes was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1991 and is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She is also a member of the Dade County Bar Association, the Cuban American Bar Association and the Florida Association for Women Lawyers.

Ms. Otazo-Reyes has extensive experience in matters involving federal court practice and procedure.