Obama Nominates Judge to Vacancy in California

SAN DIEGO (CN) - U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo was nominated Wednesday to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Bencivengo, 52, originally of Teaneck, N.J., has served as a magistrate judge since 2005. The nomination by President Barack Obama puts her in line to fill the seat vacated by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey T. Miller, who took senior status last spring.

Bencivengo left a partnership at DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, where she started as an associate in 1988, to join the federal bench. At that San Diego firm, Bencivengo co-chaired the firm's patent law division.

She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Rutgers University and then graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1988.

There is one other vacancy in the Southern District of California, which has 13 permanent judgeships and handled 8,059 new case filings in 2010.

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit