2025 Gala

For over four decades Nora Manella served as an Associate and Presiding Justice of the California Court of Appeal, a United States District Judge, a United States Attorney, a judge of the L.A. Superior and Municipal courts, a federal prosecutor; and a civil litigator. She is the recipient of two presidential and four gubernatorial appointments. She has sat permanently or by designation at every level of the state and federal courts of California.

Judge Manella graduated from Wellesley College, Phi Beta Kappa, and received her J.D. from the University of Southern California, Order of the Coif. Following a federal circuit court clerkship, she served as legal counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution in Washington, D.C. She practiced complex civil litigation with O’Melveny & Myers in Washington and Los Angeles.

For eight years, Manella served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles. As Chief of Appeals, she supervised all criminal appellate litigation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Pursuant to appointments by Governors Deukmejian and Wilson, Judge Manella served on the Los Angeles Municipal and Superior Courts.

In 1993, President Clinton nominated Judge Manella to be the United States Attorney for the Central District of California. For five years she served as the chief federal law enforcement officer for the nation’s largest district. During her tenure as U.S. Attorney, the National Law Journal named Manella one of “The 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in the United States.” In a Daily Journal survey of California lawyers, she was voted among “The 100 Most Powerful Lawyers in California.”

In 1998, she was nominated by President Clinton to the United States District Court. For over seven years she served as a federal trial judge and sat by designation on the Ninth Circuit. In 2000, she was named “Federal Judge of the Year” by the Century City Bar Association, Criminal Section.

In 2006, pursuant to Governor Schwarzenegger’s nomination, she was confirmed as an Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal. She sat multiple times by designation on the California Supreme Court.  In 2016, she received the L.A. County Bar Association Criminal Justice Section’s Career Achievement Award.

In 2018, Governor Brown appointed Manella Presiding Justice of her court. At the time of her retirement in 2023, she had authored over 1,500 opinions.