United States Bankruptcy Judge Martin R. Barash sits in Woodland Hills and Santa Barbara, California.  Prior to his appointment, Judge Barash was a partner at Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP (now called KTBS Law) in Los Angeles, where he practiced from 2001 to 2015, representing debtors and other parties in chapter 11 cases and bankruptcy litigation. He first joined the firm as an associate in 1999.  Earlier in his career, Judge Barash worked as an associate at Stutman, Treister & Glatt P.C. in Los Angeles.  He also has served as an adjunct professor of law at California State University, Northridge.  Born in Los Angeles, Judge Barash is a product of the Los Angeles Unified School District and a proud graduate of William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills.  He earned his A.B. in 1989 from Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude in Politics, and with a certificate with distinction in American Studies.  He earned his J.D. in 1992 from the UCLA School of Law, where he served as editor, business manager, and symposium editor of the UCLA Law Review.  Following law school, he clerked for Judge Procter R. Hug, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, from 1992 to 1993. Judge Barash is a former member of the board of directors for the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) and its Education Committee, and now serves on its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.  He is a judicial advisor to ABI’s annual Southwest Conference and its Consumer Practice Extravaganza.  He is a former member of the Board of Governors of the Financial Lawyers Conference and currently serves a Judicial Director of the Los Angeles Bankruptcy Forum, where he is as a member of its Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  He is a volunteer for the Los Angeles chapter of Credit Abuse Resistance Education (CARE) and was recognized nationally as the CARE Volunteer of the Year for 2022.  He has served on numerous committees of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California and currently serves as chair of its Education Committee, which is responsible for conducting educational programs for judges, law clerks and externs.  He is a frequent panelist and lecturer on bankruptcy law.