Bankruptcy Judge Margaret M. Mann was appointed a U.S. bankruptcy judge for the Southern District of California on April 2, 2010 and was recently appointed Chief Judge on October 1, 2019.  Judge Mann is a fellow with the American College of Bankruptcy and a founding member of the San Diego Bankruptcy Forum.  Before becoming a judge, she was listed in Best Lawyers in America, and served leadership roles in numerous bankruptcy and civic organizations, including the State Bar Debtor Creditor Committee, Lawyers Club, Athena and the California Bankruptcy Forum. She has been invited to speak on panels by the American College of Bankruptcy, the American Bar Association, the American Bankruptcy Institute, and the California Bankruptcy Forum. Before her appointment, Judge Mann was a partner at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP and from 2003 to 2008 she served as chair of the Restructuring and Insolvency Practice and national hiring chair for Heller Ehrman LLP.  Judge Mann received her B.A. in finance, cum laude, from the University of Illinois in 1978 and attended the Tilburg School of Economics in The Netherlands in 1978. She received her J.D. from the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law, in 1981.
Judge Mann has been active in public service throughout her legal career.