Judge Cara Masako Porter

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals appointed Judge Porter to the bankruptcy bench on August 13, 2026.  She is the first Asian American appointed as a Bankruptcy Judge in this District.

Judge Porter began her bankruptcy career as Law Clerk to the Honorable Alan Jaroslovsky of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California from 2010 to 2017.  From 2017 to 2022, Judge Porter served as an attorney for the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, in San Francisco, where she represented the state’s business and taxing authorities in bankruptcy matters as well as general civil litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts. From 2023 to 2024, Judge Porter was deputy county counsel in the Office of the Marin County Counsel in San Rafael, California.  From 2024 to 2026, Judge Porter was attorney then lead attorney in the General Counsel Unit in the Litigation Bureau at the California Franchise Tax Board, where she provided advice on the most complex and sensitive issues, policies, practices and programs at FTB.    

Judge Porter has been a member of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, the Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum, the Federal Bar Association, the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation, the Korean American Bar Association of Northern California, the National Association of Attorneys General, and the States Association of Bankruptcy Attorneys. Judge Porter was a member of the Bench-Bar Liaison Committee of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California from 2020 to 2023.

Judge Porter graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2001 and earned her Juris Doctor in 2009 from Golden Gate University School of Law, where she was Merit Scholar from 2005 to 2006.