Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley took the bench in May 2011. As a magistrate she has presided over a variety of civil cases at all stages of the proceedings, from motions to dismiss through jury trial. She has also served as a settlement judge in nearly every type of federal litigation.
Just prior to her appointment as a magistrate Judge Corley was a partner at Kerr & Wagstaffe, LLP in San Francisco as a civil litigator with an emphasis on federal practice. She represented individuals, government entities, and institutions as plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of matters, including trademark, copyright, patent, constitutional law, defamation, malicious prosecution, class actions, contract and probate.
From 1998 through 2009 Judge Corley served as a career law clerk to the Honorable Charles R. Breyer. She also served on the Northern District of California Alternative Dispute Resolution mediation and early neutral evaluation panels from 2006 through her appointment.
Judge Corley received her undergraduate degree from U.C. Berkeley, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, where she was an editor and Articles Chair of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert E. Keeton of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She then practiced complex commercial litigation and white collar criminal defense at Goodwin, Procter LLP in Boston and was a litigation associate at Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP in San Francisco before joining Judge Breyer in 1998.