Margaret M. Morrow

After twenty-five years as a trial and appellate lawyer, Margaret Morrow was appointed to the United States District Court for the Central District of California by President Bill Clinton on March 8, 1998. While on the bench, Morrow handled a wide range of civil and criminal cases.  She spearheaded efforts to build a new federal courthouse in Los Angeles, which opened in October 2016.  She also helped build and oversaw the Central District’s alternative dispute resolution program for over ten years.  Morrow left the bench in January 2016 to become President and CEO of Public Counsel, a nonprofit public interest law firm that provides legal services free of charge to over 16,000 low income and underserved clients every year.

Morrow is a past president of the State Bar of California and was the first woman ever elected to that position.  She also served as president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and its Barristers, or Young Lawyers’, Section.  Morrow recently served on the Legal Services Corporation’s Rural Justice Task Force and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Advisory Committee on Access to Justice. She is a member of the Legal Service Corporation’s Leaders Council.  

Morrow served for 18 years on the Board of Trustees of Bryn Mawr College and is currently an Emeritus Trustee of the college.  She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Carrie Estelle Doheny Foundation.  

During her career, Morrow has received numerous awards, including the Outstanding Jurist Award and Shattuck-Price Award from the Los Angeles County Bar Association; the Bernard E. Witkin Amicus Curiae Award from the Judicial Council of California; the Ernestine Stahlhut Award from the Women Lawyers’ Association of Los Angeles; the 2011 Judge of the Year Award from the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel; the Maynard Toll Award from the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles; the 2016 Impact Award from the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association, and the 2019 Public Service Award from the National Association of Women Lawyers.

She is currently a mediator, arbitrator and private judge at Judicate West, where she assists parties with a wide variety of civil disputes.