Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo
Judge Bencivengo was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California by President Barack Obama and confirmed in February 2012. Prior to her confirmation, she served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District since December, 2005. Judge Bencivengo was a participant in the Southern District’s Patent Pilot Program and is a member of the District’s Criminal Justice Act Advisory Committee.
Before joining the bench, Judge Bencivengo was a partner with the law firm of DLA Piper LLP (formerly Gray, Cary), where she specialized in intellectual property litigation and was National Co-Chair of the firm’s Patent Litigation Practice Group. As a patent litigator, Judge Bencivengo represented both plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of technologies, including computer hardware and software, chemistry, immunology, semiconductor chip manufacturing, medical devices and consumer products. She was also the lead trademark and copyright litigation counsel for Dr. Seuss Enterprises, LLP.
Judge Bencivengo attended Rutgers University in New Jersey, earning a B.A. in journalism and political science and an M.A. in political science as a Fellow at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. She received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, magna cum laude.
Judge Bencivengo is a Master in the J. Clifford Wallace Chapter and the Louis M. Welsh Chapter of the American Inns of Court. She was Chair of the Ninth Circuit Education Committee. She is currently serving as the President of the Ninth Circuit District Judges Association and as a Judicial Advisor for the San Diego Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and the Sedona Conference.
Magistrate Judge Valerie E. Torres
Southern District of California. She was appointed to the bench by the judges of the Southern District of California on December 8, 2023, filling a seat vacated by the Hon. William Gallo. Prior to her appointment, Torres was an assistant United States attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, a position to which she was named in 2014. During her tenure there, she held assignments as Deputy Chief of the Civil Division. Torres earned a bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University in 1999. She then completed a J.D. at Pepperdine University, Rick J. Caruso School of Law, in 2002. She is licensed to practice in California (2002).
After graduating from law school, Torres entered into private practice, working as an associate at Latham & Watkins in San Diego. In that capacity, she specialized in cases involving environmental law, harm caused by toxic substances, and product liability claims.
Magistrate Judge Allison H. Goddard,
Judge Allison Goddard was sworn in as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of California in August 2019. She graduated from Boston College in 1993 and received her J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law in 2000. Judge Goddard spent the first half of her legal career representing corporate defendants in litigation at Cooley LLP and her own law firm, Jaczko Goddard LLP. In 2011, she shifted her practice to representing plaintiffs in complex and intellectual property litigation. She has tried several cases, including class actions and patent infringement disputes.
Judge Goddard speaks regularly on eDiscovery and other litigation issues and traveled recently to Uzbekistan to speak on judicial independence. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the San Diego Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and the Louis M. Welsh Inn of Court.
