Hon. Edward Chen

United States District Court Judge, Northern District of California

Judge Chen is a 1979 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. After clerking for U.S. District Judge Charles B. Renfrew and U.S. Court of Appeals Chief Judge James R. Browning, he practiced as a litigation associate with the law firm of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy, and Bass. He joined the legal staff of the ACLU Foundation of Northern California in 1985 where he handled complex civil litigation.

From 2001 to 2011, Judge Chen served as a federal Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of California. Judge Chen was first nominated by President Obama to the U.S. District Court on August 6, 2009 and was confirmed in May 2011. In addition to his judicial duties, Judge Chen has participated and led judicial seminars on mediation, employment, intellectual property, civil rights, access to justice, case management, and conduct of virtual jury trials. He currently chairs the Northern District’s jury committee, served as co-chair of the Circuit’s Fairness Committee, was a member of the FJC Advisory Committee on District Judge Education, serves on the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Magistrate Judges System, chairing its diversity subcommittee, and is currently on the Board of Editors for the revised edition of the Manual for Complex Litigation. Judge Chen has presided over several MDL case and recently tried three substantial class actions to verdict.

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