Jacqueline Scott Corley (née Jacqueline Marie Scott, born 1966) 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, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. She served as a

United States magistrate judge In United States federal courts, magistrate judges are judges appointed to assist U.S. district court judges in the performance of their duties. Magistrate judges generally oversee first appearances of criminal defendants, set bail, and condu ...

of the same court from 2011 to 2022.

Education

Corley graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

with an undergraduate degree in 1988, and in 1991, graduated with her

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

degree ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

'' from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

, where she was also an editor and articles chair on the ''

Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 ...

''.Jacqueline Scott Corley, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, https://www.cand.uscourts.gov/jsc

Career

Upon graduation from

law school A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

, Corley served as a judicial law clerk for Judge

Robert E. Keeton Robert Ernest Keeton (December 16, 1919 – July 2, 2007) was an American lawyer, jurist, and legal scholar. As a law professor at Harvard Law School and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of M ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (in case citations, D. Mass.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The first court session was he ...

. She then practiced with the law firm of

Goodwin Procter Goodwin Procter LLP is a global law firm. It is one of the largest law firms in the world as measured by revenue and consists of more than 1,800 lawyers across offices in Boston, Cambridge, Frankfurt, Munich, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Luxemb ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

focusing on

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. It was first defined by the sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as " ...

as well as complex commercial civil litigation. Corley then worked as a litigation associate at the firm of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. From 1998 to 2009, Corley served as the permanent

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

to Judge

Charles Breyer Charles Roberts Breyer (born November 3, 1941) is an American attorney and jurist serving as a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Breyer served as chairman of the Uni ...

of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. She has also served on the

Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, ...

Alternative Dispute Resolution mediation and early neutral evaluation panels from 2006 to 2007 though her appointment in 2011. From 2009 to 2011, Corley was a

partner Partner, Partners, The Partner, or, The Partners may refer to: Books * ''The Partner'' (Grisham novel), by John Grisham, 1997 * ''The Partner'' (Jenaro Prieto novel), 1928 * ''The Partners'' (book), a 1983 book by James B. Stewart * ''Partner'' (m ...

at the law firm of Kerr & Wagstaffe in

, where she had a focus on federal practice as a civil litigator. At Kerr & Wagstaffe, Corley represented government entities, individuals and institutions as plaintiffs and defendants in various cases involving patent, copyright, trademark, defamation, constitutional law, malicious prosecution, class action, contract and probate legal issues.

Federal judicial service

United States magistrate judge tenure

On May 18, 2011, Corley was appointed as a

of the

. She assumed the vacated seat left by then magistrate judge

Edward M. Chen Edward Milton Chen (born January 20, 1953) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and former United States magistrate judge of the same court. Early life and educat ...

, who was elevated to be a district court judge in 2011. Corley also served as the

's Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Magistrate Judge, in charge of coordinating the ADR program with the Court during her time as a magistrate judge. Her service as a magistrate terminated when she was commissioned as a district judge.

District court service

On November 3, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Corley to serve as a

of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. President Biden nominated Corley to the seat vacated by Judge

William Alsup William Haskell Alsup (born June 27, 1945) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Early life and career Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Alsup received a Bachelor o ...

, who assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on January 21, 2021. On December 1, 2021, a hearing on her nomination was held before the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nomination ...

. On January 3, 2022, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and ...

; she was later renominated the same day. On January 13, 2022, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 16–6 vote. On March 16, 2022, the Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 63–35 vote. On March 17, 2022, her nomination was confirmed by a 63–36 vote. She received her judicial commission on March 30, 2022.

References

External links

*
The Honorable Jacqueline Scott Corley, U.S. Magistrate Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of California
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corley, Jacqueline Scott 1966 births Living people 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American women judges Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California People from Long Beach, California Lawyers from San Francisco United States district court judges appointed by Joe Biden United States magistrate judges University of California, Berkeley alumni