The Barristers Club was delighted to present Judge Lisa L. Cisneros with its Tara L. Riedley Barristers Choice Award at the 40th Annual Judges Reception on June 13, 2024. Judge Cisneros is a Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Barristers Board Members Breana Burgos and Grace Davis Fisher had the pleasure of speaking with Judge Cisneros about her career and her path to the bench. Here are some of the highlights from the conversation.
Almost An Astronaut
Judge Cisneros grew up surrounded by farmland in a close-knit community. Her family moved to Salinas when she was five. Her mother, a medical resident at a local county hospital, and her father, a city personnel worker, were active members of the Salinas community. Both of her parents volunteered extensively and worked to ensure families in Salinas had access to healthcare as well as jobs within the city, such as in the library or fire department.
The young Judge Cisneros dreamed of becoming an astronaut. She recalled watching the space shuttle liftoff in class and hoped to go to space camp. With time, though, she discovered that she was extraordinarily susceptible to motion sickness. Thankfully, as she grew older, she set her sights on the law instead. NASA’s loss would one day be the California legal community’s gain.
After high school, Judge Cisneros left her farm town for Brown University. Apart from adapting to the drastic weather differences, Judge Cisneros also had to adjust to the culture shock. She had left her family back home and found herself suddenly alone on the East Coast. But the draw of being able to select her own courses at Brown, also known as the Berkeley of the East Coast, helped ease the adjustment. This was also the first time Judge Cisneros was on her own and as a young, queer woman, she thrived having her own space. It was at Brown that Judge Cisneros met her wife. After Brown, Judge Cisneros spent some time back in California and then returned to the East Coast before deciding to attend law school at UC Berkeley.
While at law school, Judge Cisneros began pursuing a career in LGBTQ+ civil rights. Upon graduation, she accepted a position at the California Rural Legal Assistance program (CRLA), where she started and led its LGBT program in her hometown of Salinas. At the time, same-sex marriage was not yet legal—but Judge Cisneros was undeterred. She began developing the program, and focused particularly on training CRLA workers and staff to understand Civil Rights protections for LGBTQ+ individuals so that they could provide legal assistance in workplace harassment and discrimination matters. This work left a profound impact on Judge Cisneros and is, to date, one of the proudest accomplishment of her legal career.
Early in her career, Judge Cisneros also spent two years clerking for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland. Upon finishing her clerkship, Judge Cisneros entered private practice at a nationally recognized plaintiff-side law firm. There she helped litigate class actions and mass tort cases. In early 2019, she joined the California Department of Justice, where she dealt with an array of issues from complex civil cases to immigration to LGBTQ+ civil rights.
Joining the Bench
Judge Cisneros did not initially have her legal sights set on joining the bench. But after 15 years of practicing law, she started to seriously consider the possibility. Judge Cisneros had spent most of her career as a public servant, often litigating in federal court. Her time in federal court had bolstered her deeply held belief in the essential role of an independent judiciary and in independent constitutional systems of governance.
In 2022, Judge Cisneros was appointed as a Magistrate Judge to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, where she continues to serve today.
Judge Cisneros enjoys serving alongside her esteemed colleagues in the Northern District. She especially respects the deep commitment to public service and the collegiality shown by her colleagues in the Northern District.
Judge Cisneros finds her work on the bench to be rewarding and challenging, and enjoys engaging in many areas of substantive and procedural law. She is proud to set an example for young attorneys from diverse backgrounds who aspire to master federal litigation and may be similarly interested in joining the judiciary one day.
Find Meaningful Work, Strive for Excellence, and Don’t Forget to Sleep (Oh, and Call Your Mom)
When asked what advice she would give to younger lawyers and her younger self, Judge Cisneros did not miss a beat. “Don’t forget to sleep for a bit,” she said. She acknowledged that a career in the law is demanding: the hours can be long, the work stressful, and the challenges seemingly endless. She offered the reminder that rest is essential to keeping your mind sharp and that attorneys should pay attention to their well-being, though understanding that growth requires deep commitment. She aptly noted that the legal profession is a marathon, not a sprint.
Judge Cisneros also emphasized that all lawyers, including young lawyers, should be public-minded. Volunteering time as an attorney is essential to ensuring everyone in our communities has access to critical legal services. This advice comes as little surprise given that Judge Cisneros had devoted her legal career to doing just that – ensuring access to justice.
She summed up her advice nicely: Find meaningful work, strive for excellence, and don’t forget to sleep. She added with a laugh, “Oh and don’t forget to call your loved ones. Your mom probably wants to hear from you.”
Click here to see all the photos from this year's Judges Reception.
