Nathaniel Matheson Gorton (born July 25, 1938) is an American lawyer serving as a senior United States district judge 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 United States district court, federal district court whose Jurisdiction (area), territorial jurisdiction is the Commonwealth (U.S. state), C ...

Early life and early legal career

Gorton was born in 1938 in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...

, the son of Ruth (Israel) and Thomas Slade Gorton, Jr. His elder brother was

Slade Gorton Thomas Slade Gorton III (January 8, 1928 – August 19, 2020) was an American lawyer and politician from Washington. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a member of the United States Senate from 1981 to 1987, and again from 1989 to ...

, who later became a member of the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

from

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. Gorton received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

in 1960, and a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...

in 1966. He was in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

from 1960 to 1962, where he was a

Lieutenant Junior Grade Lieutenant junior grade is a junior commissioned officer rank used in a number of navies. United States Lieutenant (junior grade), commonly abbreviated as LTJG or, historically, Lt. (j.g.) (as well as variants of both abbreviations), i ...

, and an executive officer on the USS ''Banner'' (AKL-25) in the Western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

."FEDERAL COURT JUDGES sitting in MASSACHUSETTS,"
''Biographies of Massachusetts Judges'', 2019. Gorton worked in private practice in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

from 1966 to 1992, where he was an associate in the trial and business departments at

Nutter McClennen & Fish Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP is a long-standing law firm in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm has a wide variety of practice areas including intellectual property, technology, business, and real estate law. Nutter was co-founded by Samuel D. Warren ...

until 1969, an associate at Powers & Hall PC from 1970 to 1974 and a partner at the latter firm from 1975 until 1992, practicing civil business litigation.

Federal judicial service

On April 28, 1992, Gorton was nominated by President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

to a new seat on the

created by Section 203(a)(14) of the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 (, ). He was confirmed by the

on September 23, 1992, and received his commission the following day. He assumed senior status on May 31, 2025. In 2015 Gorton received the

Federal Bar Association The Federal Bar Association (FBA) is the primary voluntary professional organization for private and government lawyers and judges practicing and sitting in federal courts in the United States. Six times a year, the FBA prints ''The Federal Lawye ...

, Massachusetts chapter, Recognition Award for dedication and service. According to the ''USA Today'' in April 2019, Gorton "has a reputation for issuing stronger sentences than his peers," while

Law360 Law360 is a subscription-based, legal news service based in New York City. It is operated by Portfolio Media, Inc., a subsidiary of LexisNexisSabroski, Suzxanne (May 1, 2012) LexisNexis goes 360, ''Onliline'' and delivers breaking news and analys ...

stated that he "has a reputation for being a no-nonsense, fairly conservative judge." He presided over the sentencing of many parents indicted in the 2019 College admissions bribery scandal, most notably actress

Lori Loughlin Lori Anne Loughlin (; born July 28, 1964) is an American actress. From 1988 to 1995, she played List of Full House and Fuller House characters#Rebecca Donaldson Katsopolis, Rebecca Donaldson Katsopolis on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC ...

and her husband, fashion designer

Mossimo Giannulli Mossimo Giannulli (born Massimo Giannulli; June 4, 1963) is an American fashion designer who founded Mossimo, a mid-range clothing company, in 1986; Giannulli sold this company to Iconix Brand Group in 2006, exactly twenty years after it was found ...

, which saw the two of them sentenced to two months and five months in prison respectively.

Other activities

Gorton is a former Chair of the Board of Trustees of

Buckingham Browne & Nichols School Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, often referred to as BB&N, is an independent school, independent co-educational day school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, educating students from pre-kindergarten (called Beginners) through twelfth grade. Gr ...

, an independent co-educational day school in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, with students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

References

External links

*
"Know Your Judge: Nathaniel M. Gorton,"
May 2, 2018.
"Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton,"
at the

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) is a nonprofit and nonpartisan data gathering, data research, and data distribution organization in the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. TRAC collects big da ...

(TRAC) of

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorton, Nathaniel Matheson 1938 births Living people Lawyers from Evanston, Illinois Military personnel from Illinois Lawyers from Boston Dartmouth College alumni Columbia Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts United States district court judges appointed by George H. W. Bush United States Navy sailors Judges of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court 21st-century American judges

Early life and early legal career

Federal judicial service

Other activities

See also

References

External links