Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Former assistant U.S. attorney M. Kendra Klump has officially joined the Indiana Southern District Court as a magistrate judge.
Klump was sworn in Friday in a private ceremony, according to a news release from the federal court. She succeeds Judge Doris L. Pryor, who has been elevated to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“During her interview, the district judges were overwhelmingly impressed with Kendra Klump’s intelligence, preparedness, and passion for pursuing equal justice under the law,” Chief Judge Tanya Walton Pratt said during the ceremony, according to the news release. “She also demonstrated those abilities as an assistant United States attorney, and each of these traits are going to serve her very well as a magistrate judge.”
A 2004 graduate of Georgetown University, Klump spent her early career with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C.
She then enrolled at the University of Michigan Law School in May 2008, graduating in December 2010. While in law school, Klump was a Darrow Scholar, received the Rakow Scholarship, earned merit certificates for performance in administrative law and securities regulation, and was a contributing editor on the Michigan Law Review.
After law school, Klump clerked for now-Senior Judge Judith W. Rogers at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit before taking a position as an assistant U.S. attorney in Cleveland.
In January 2017, she became an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana — briefly overlapping with Pryor, who is also a former assistant U.S. attorney — where she became the chief of the district’s Drug Trafficking Unit in February 2022.
Klump is a member of the Indianapolis Bar Association’s Women and the Law Division and Criminal Justice Section, serving on the Women and the Law Division’s Mentoring Program. She is also a member of the 2022-2024 Steering Committee for the Women’s Leadership Initiative, which is designed to enhance diversity, professional development and relationships throughout the federal court community.
In Ohio, she served on the board of the Northern District of Ohio Federal Bar Association.
Speaking at her swearing-in ceremony, Klump said she had been reflecting on the phrase “attitude of abundance.”
“That is the mantra that my family and I have adopted and embrace every day,” she said, according to the news release. “These words help us remember and appreciate all the great things that we have: the opportunities, the family, the friends, our home, and our health.
“Our youngest child can’t say ‘attitude of abundance’ quite yet, but when we speak these words before dinner each night, he knows something wonderful and good is about to happen,” she continued. “He is happy and grateful to be at the table with his family, and just like him, I am very excited about what is to come. I’m happy to be at this table with my family and my new extended court family.”
Klump’s formal investiture ceremony will be held at a later date.
Magistrate judges are appointed by district judges for eight-year terms and can be reappointed to successive terms. They preside over many pretrial proceedings in both civil and criminal cases as well as mediation and settlement proceedings in civil cases.
The Indiana Southern District Court may soon have another magistrate judge vacancy, as Magistrate Judge Matthew Brookman has been nominated to succeed Judge Richard Young, who has announced his plans to take senior status.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.