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.
Judge Marilyn L. Huff
The Honorable Marilyn L. Huff was appointed in 1991 as a federal district judge for the Southern District of California to a seat previously held by the Honorable J. Clifford Wallace and the Honorable William B. Enright. She was Chief Judge of the Southern District of California from 1998 to 2005. She took senior status on October 1, 2016 and the Honorable Todd W. Robinson was appointed as her successor.
Judge Huff serves on the Ninth Circuit Jury Instructions Committee. She is also the President of the First Study Commission of the International Association of Judges (“IAJ”), which issued a report in 2023 on The Effects of Remote Work on the Judicial Workplace and the Administration of Justice. She is an author of the chapter “The Judge’s Viewpoint” in the ABA Patent Litigation Strategies Handbook.
Additionally, Judge Huff served as the president of the Federal Judges Association (“FJA”) from 2017 to 2019. She also previously has been a member of the U.S. Judicial Conference Budget Committee, the U.S. Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, the Judicial Resources Committee, and a liaison to the Evidence Rules Committee. She was also the chair of the Ninth Circuit Fairness, Gender Fairness, Public Information and Community Outreach Committees. She was also a member of the Ninth Circuit Education Committee, the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council, the Judicial Advisory Board of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and the Executive Board of the Louis Welsh American Inns of Court, President of the Lawyer’s Club, and Vice President of the San Diego County Bar Association. She was also President of the Spencer Williams Foundation, which was dissolved in 2023.
She received her J.D. from the University of Michigan law school in 1976 and a B.A. from Calvin College in 1972. She taught third grade in Jennison, Michigan from 1972 to 1973. She was a lawyer in private practice in San Diego from 1976 to 1991. She received the San Diego County Bar Association’s awards for Legal Professional of the Year and Service to the Legal Profession and the Lawyer’s Club Belva Lockwood Award.
Magistrate Judge Daniel E. Butcher
Daniel E. Butcher is a Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. Prior to his appointment in 2020, Judge Butcher was an Assistant United States Attorney, an associate at Latham & Watkins, and a law clerk to the Hon. Rudi M. Brewster. Judge Butcher is a Master in the Louis M. Welsh Inn of Court and an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. He received his B.A. from the University of California, San Diego, and his J.D. from Cornell Law School.
Magistrate Judge David D. Leshner
Judge Leshner was appointed as a U.S. Magistrate Judge in August 2022. Prior to his appointment, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for 15 years, handling criminal prosecutions in a variety of subject matter areas, including violent crime, racketeering, drug trafficking, immigration, fraud, tax evasion and child exploitation. Judge Leshner served as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney from 2021 to 2022 and as Chief of the Criminal Division from 2019 to 2021. He served as a Lawyer Representative for the Southern District of California from 2018 to 2022, and he is a member of the San Diego High School Mock Trial Competition Committee.
Judge Leshner graduated from the University of Virginia in 1994, and from the Washington and Lee University School of Law in 1999.
