Michael W. Fitzgerald

Michael Walter Fitzgerald
Michael Walter Fitzgerald
Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; March 15, 2012
Appointed by	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Howard Matz
Personal details
Born	Michael Walter Fitzgerald; July 11, 1959 (age 65); Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	Harvard College (AB); University of California, Berkeley (JD)

Michael Walter Fitzgerald (born July 11, 1959) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.^[1]

Early life and education

Fitzgerald was born in Los Angeles, California, on July 11, 1959.^[2] He earned an Artium Baccalaureus from Harvard College in 1981 and a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1985.^[3] From 1985 to 1986, Fitzgerald served as a law clerk for Judge Irving Kaufman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.^[4]^[5]

Career

From 1988 to 1991, Fitzgerald was an assistant United States attorney for the Central District of California.^[3] Fitzgerald worked at Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe from 1991 to 1995 and at the law offices of Robert L. Corbin from 1995 to 1998.^[6] 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 and business litigation.^[4]^[5]

Federal judicial service

On July 20, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Fitzgerald to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, he was nominated to the seat vacated by Judge Howard Matz.^[4] Fitzgerald is the fourth openly gay candidate nominated by Obama to a federal judgeship, after Edward DuMont, J. Paul Oetken, and Alison J. Nathan.^[1]

He received a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee 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.^[7] On March 15, 2012, the Senate confirmed Fitzgerald by a 91–6 vote.^[8] He received his commission the same day.^[5]

Notable ruling

In February 2018, Fitzgerald's ruling in Sean Hall and Nathan Butler's copyright lawsuit against Taylor Swift received international attention.^[9]^[10]