Michael Walter Fitzgerald (born July 11, 1959) is a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the Central District of California The United States District Court for the Central District of California (in case citations, C.D. Cal.; commonly referred to as the CDCA or CACD) is a United States district court, federal trial court that serves over 19 million people in South ...

Early life and education

Fitzgerald was born in Los Angeles, California, on July 11, 1959. He earned an Artium Baccalaureus from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

in 1981 and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from the

University of California, Berkeley School of Law The University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley. The school was commonly referred to as "Boalt Hall" for many years, although it was never the official name. This cam ...

in 1985. From 1985 to 1986, Fitzgerald served as a law clerk for Judge

Irving Kaufman Irving Robert Kaufman (June 24, 1910 – February 1, 1992) was a United States federal judge, United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and a United States district judge of the United States Distri ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory covers the states of Connecticut, New York (state), New York, and Vermont, and it has ap ...

Career

From 1988 to 1991, Fitzgerald was an

assistant United States attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gov ...

for the Central District of California. Fitzgerald worked at Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe from 1991 to 1995 and at the law offices of Robert L. Corbin from 1995 to 1998. From 1998, until his appointment to the Federal bench, Fitzgerald was part of a small Los Angeles law firm, Corbin, Fitzgerald & Athey, which handles

white collar criminal defense The term "white-collar crime" refers to financially motivated, nonviolent or non-directly violent crime committed by individuals, businesses and government professionals. The crimes are believed to be committed by middle- or upper-class indivi ...

and business litigation.

Federal judicial service

On July 20, 2011, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

nominated Fitzgerald to serve as a United States district judge of the

, he was nominated to the seat vacated by Judge

Howard Matz Alvin Howard Matz (born August 3, 1943) is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Education and career Matz was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received an Artium Baccala ...

. Fitzgerald is the fourth openly gay candidate nominated by Obama to a federal judgeship, after Edward DuMont,

J. Paul Oetken James Paul Oetken ( ; born October 1, 1965), known professionally as J. Paul Oetken, is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He is the first openly gay man to be confirmed as ...

, and Alison J. Nathan. He received a hearing before the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally known as the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a Standing committee (United States Congress), standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the United States Departm ...

on October 4, 2011, and the committee reported his nomination to the floor of the Senate on November 3, 2011, his nomination being placed on the Senate Executive Calendar that same day. On March 15, 2012, the Senate confirmed Fitzgerald by a 91–6 vote. He received his commission the same day. Fitzgerald will preside over the

murder-for-hire Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, moneta ...

trial for rapper

Lil Durk Durk Derrick Banks (born October 19, 1992), known professionally as Lil Durk, is an American rapper. Regarded as a pioneering artist in the Chicago-based hip-hop subgenre drill music, he is often considered the subgenre's most commercially suc ...

and his co-defendants.

Notable ruling

In February 2018, Fitzgerald's ruling in Sean Hall and Nathan Butler's copyright lawsuit against

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...

received international attention.

Personal

Fitzgerald is openly gay and was the first openly

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

person to be appointed to the federal bench in California.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Michael W. 1959 births Living people Assistant United States attorneys Harvard College alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Central District of California LGBTQ appointed officials in the United States LGBTQ judges American LGBTQ lawyers Lawyers from Los Angeles UC Berkeley School of Law alumni United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama 21st-century American LGBTQ people