Michelle M. Pettit

Judge Michelle M. Pettit

U.S. Magistrate Judge, Southern District of California

The Honorable Michelle M. Pettit is a United States Magistrate Judge in the Southern District of California. She was appointed to the bench on July 24, 2023, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Magistrate Judge Mitchell Dembin. Prior to her appointment, Judge Pettit had a distinguished career in public service. She served for over 15 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of California, where her work included prosecuting cases involving national security, cybercrime, fraud, and drug trafficking. Judge Pettit is also a Captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve JAG Corps and previously served as a Circuit Military Judge. She earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served as a Managing Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review, and her B.S. with distinction from the United States Naval Academy.

As a relatively new magistrate judge, Judge Pettit is in the early stages of developing a patent litigation docket. The Southern District of California is a frequent venue for patent disputes, and as a magistrate judge, she will handle various pretrial matters in these cases, including discovery disputes, scheduling, and settlement conferences. Given her extensive prior experience as a federal prosecutor in complex areas like cybercrime, she is well-positioned to handle sophisticated technological subject matter. However, a public record of her approach to specific patent-law issues, such as claim construction, has not yet been established. The recently filed case of NSV Group Fzco v. BD Innovation Collective Inc. is among the first patent matters to appear on her docket.

Due to her recent appointment, Judge Pettit has not yet authored any significant published opinions in patent cases or established notable trends in the area. Litigants appearing before her can expect a well-prepared jurist with deep experience in federal court procedure. Her prior work in the National Security and Cybercrimes section of the U.S. Attorney's office suggests a strong aptitude for cases involving complex technical evidence.

Judge Pettit’s Civil Chambers Rules emphasize professionalism and civility, requiring all parties to be familiar with Civil Local Rule 2.1. Her rules place a high value on the meet-and-confer process, which she expects counsel to engage in thoroughly and in good faith to resolve the vast majority of disputes without court intervention. To bring a discovery motion, parties must obtain advance permission from the court. Judge Pettit’s rules also address protective orders, encouraging parties to use her model order, and she makes clear that there is a "presumptive right of public access to court records" and that any request to file documents under seal will be scrutinized carefully.