| Paul J. Watford | |
|---|---|
| Judicial nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit | |
| Nominated by | Barack Obama |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1967 Garden Grove, California |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley (A.B.) UCLA School of Law (J.D.) |
Paul Jeffrey Watford (born 1967) is a litigator and currently a nominee to a federal judgeship. On October 17, 2011 President Barack Obama nominated Watford to a federal judicial seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Watford was born and raised in Orange County, California. In 1989 he received a B.A. in 1989 from the University of California, Berkeley and in 1994 his J.D. in 1994 from the UCLA School of Law, where he graduated Order of the Coif. Watford also served as an editor of the UCLA Law Review.
In 1994 he served as a law clerk to Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit and from 1995 to 1996 he clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1996 he joined the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson. In 1997 Watford became an Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California prosecuting a wide range of federal criminal cases. In 2000 he joined the Los Angeles law firm Sidley Austin but he returned to Munger in 2001, where he became partner in 2003. Watford also served as a lecturer in law from 2007 to 2009 at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law, where he taught an upper-level course in judicial opinion writing.[1]
On October 17, 2011, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Watford to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.[1] If confirmed, he would fill the seat that had been held by Judge Pamela Ann Rymer, who died September 21, 2011.