Hon. Kandis Westmore

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.

Judge Westmore 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 litigated code enforcement and drug nuisance abatement cases. She also served in the Litigation Division 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. She currently serves as a member of the court’s Community Outreach Committee and co-leads the court’s Alternatives to Incarceration Program (ATIP). 

She is also an adjunct professor at Golden Gate University School of Law, where she teaches Honors Evidence.

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.

• Trial practice
• Evidence

• University of San Francisco School of Law, JD, 1997
• UC Berkeley, BA, 1989

• Magistrate Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of California