On February 24, the United States Senate confirmed President Obama's appointments of James Donato and San Mateo Superior Court Judge Beth Freeman to the Northern District of California, filling two of the three vacancies in the district's roster.
James Donato (B.A, Cal 1983, J.D., Stanford 1988), past President of the Bar Association of San Francisco (2008) and Barristers Club (1997), will inherit the San Francisco seat vacated by former N.D. Cal. Chief Judge James Ware, who retired in August 2012. Donato served as a San Francisco Deputy City Attorney in the mid-nineties before joining Cooley LLP, where he had an active antitrust practice, including a pair of rare antitrust trials for Tyco Healthcare and dozens of antitrust cases for Bay Area graphics powerhouse Nvidia. In 2009, he moved to the San Francisco office of Shearman & Sterling LLP, where he continued to represent technology clients in antitrust, commercial litigation, privacy, and class action matters.
Judge Beth Freeman (B.A. Cal 1976, J.D., Harvard 1979) served nearly two decades as Deputy County Counsel for San Mateo before being appointed to the San Mateo Superior Court by Gray Davis in 2001, where she served as Assistant Presiding Judge (2009-2010) and Presiding Judge (2011-2012). Judge Freeman's civic service began early—and audaciously. At only age 18 she was southern San Mateo County's Democratic nominee for the state Assembly and the next year was a delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention. She has proved popular on the bench, and is known as active, well-prepared, and efficient judge. Judge Freeman will join Judges Davila, Fogel, and Koh and Senior Judges Jensen and Whyte in the San Jose Courthouse later this year.
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