Anna Y. Park has been appointed as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Central District of California. She was sworn in on February 6, 2026, and will handle cases in Los Angeles within the Court’s Western Division. Judge Park takes over from former Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian.
Prior to her appointment, Judge Park worked as a Regional Attorney for the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In this role, she led and litigated civil cases to enforce federal anti-discrimination employment laws across Central and Southern California, Nevada, Hawaii, and U.S. territories in the Pacific. The court noted that “At the EEOC, Judge Park brought influential cases and was recognized for her groundbreaking work challenging labor trafficking as a civil rights violation under federal anti-discrimination laws.” She also managed individual and class action lawsuits on behalf of vulnerable groups in various industries and secured significant monetary settlements and other remedies for the public.
Judge Park was frequently consulted by the EEOC as an expert on discrimination topics such as human trafficking, intersections between employment and immigration law, sexual harassment, and other complex workplace discrimination issues.
She has served as a mediator on both the ADR Mediation Panel for the Central District of California and for the EEOC Hearings Unit in Los Angeles. In 2024, she was named to the EEOC’s Performance Review Board—an honor reserved for senior executives at federal agencies. Additionally, she is active with several professional organizations: “Judge Park serves on the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Labor and Employment Section,” according to court officials. Her previous roles include positions with groups such as the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference; Central District of California Lawyer Representatives; Japanese American Bar Association; Korean American Bar Association; American Bar Association; Asian Pacific American Bar Association; Federal Bar Association Labor and Employment Section; and Los Angeles County Bar Association.
Earlier in her career, Judge Park worked at Litt & Associates in Los Angeles as a Senior Managing Associate. There she handled civil rights litigation including housing discrimination, employment discrimination, and police misconduct cases at both state and federal levels.
Judge Park received her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from UCLA in 1989. She earned her Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law in 1992 where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Asian American Pacific Islands Law Journal.
With this appointment filled by Judge Park, there are now 24 full-time magistrate judges serving in California’s Central District Court. The district covers seven counties—Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo—and serves more than 19 million people.
