Washington—Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today announced the confirmation of Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr., to be a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of California.

Gilliam was nominated on August 18, 2014, by President Obama on the recommendation of Senator Feinstein. He received the highest rating of “well qualified” from a substantial majority of the American Bar Association’s review committee.

“Haywood Gilliam has an outstanding record as a federal prosecutor in the Northern District and a private practitioner,” said Senator Feinstein. “He began his career as a law clerk to Judge Thelton Henderson on this same court, and I am confident he will serve the Northern District with great distinction for many years to come.”

The Northern District, which frequently hears major technology cases, has a substantial caseload. According to the Judicial Conference of the United States, the court has averaged 632 weighted filings per judgeship over the past four years, which is 20 percent above the average caseload and well above the threshold for a “judicial emergency.” Criminal felony cases take 47 percent longer to complete than the national average, and civil cases take 19 percent longer than the national average to go to trial.

Background on Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr.

Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr., graduated magna cum laude from Yale in 1991 and earned his law degree from Stanford Law School in 1994. He was an article editor for the Stanford Law Review.

He clerked for U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson in the Northern District of California from 1994 to 1995.

From 1996 to 1999, he was an associate at the law firm of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown, & Enersen.

From 1999 through 2006, he served as an assistant United States attorney in the Northern District of California, including as chief of the securities fraud section from 2005 to 2006.

In 2006, he rejoined his prior law firm, then called Bingham McCutchen, as a partner. In 2009, he became a partner at Covington & Burling, where he is vice-chair of the firm’s white collar defense & investigations practice group.

He has been active in the Bay Area legal community, serving on the district court’s merit selection panel for magistrate judges, the Stanford Law School Board of Visitors, and the board of the Bar Association of San Francisco. He has also been a lawyer representative to the Ninth Circuit’s Judicial Conference.

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