Federal judge William Alsup takes senior status

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, the influential San Francisco jurist who has handled everything from the PG&E criminal case to the copyright trials between Oracle and Google, has taken senior status.

He sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday and will continue to handle cases on senior status.

Asked Friday why he decided to take senior status now, the 75-year-old Alsup wrote in an email: "It was a personal choice dictated by many considerations including my age and family needs and a desire to slow down a little."

Known for his keen legal mind and occasionally sharp tongue, the Mississippi native -- who was appointed to the federal bench in 1999 by President Bill Clinton -- seemed to relish the chance to take on difficult cases.

He presided over two Oracle-Google trials, commenting at one point on his ability to do some basic coding, only to have his decisions in favor of the defense vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The case is now awaiting a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Alsup is one of the first judges appointed by a Democratic president to take senior status, which will give Biden and a U.S. Senate narrowly controlled by Democrats a chance to choose more liberal judges for the federal bench. He will not be the last. Attorneys involved in the vetting process say they expect many circuit and district judges who are eligible to take senior status do so while Democrats are in control of the executive branch and the Senate at least during the next two years.

He grew up wanting to be a civil engineer like his father, but changed his mind because of the influence of the civil rights movement in his home state. Every school he attended was segregated until his last two years of college.

"It was an apartheid-type system in Mississippi," he said in a 2015 interview with the Daily Journal. "Segregation was enforced by law."

He attended Mississippi State University, where he was president of the student YMCA, and was an officer of the Young Democrats. Alsup went to Harvard Law School, graduating in 1971.

Alsup served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, and spent years in private practice, including a long stint at Morrison & Foerster LLP, before he was appointed to the bench.

Edward W. Swanson, a partner at Swanson & McNamara LLP, praised the judge in a statement Friday.

"As we all know, Judge Alsup has a rich life off the bench. He's an intrepid hiker and a fabulous photographer, among many other talents," Swanson wrote. "But I hope we'll get to see no less of him in court now that he's taken senior status."

"He's demanding of counsel, to be sure, but he appreciates the humanity of our clients and has a deep belief in rehabilitation," he added. "Judge Alsup also has the courage of his convictions, and if counsel transgresses, even if they are prosecutors, he will hold them to account."

Alsup keeps early hours, with court sessions usually starting at 7:30 a.m., and pushes for young associates to get opportunities to argue motions. The judge is known for issuing pointed orders if he is displeased or concerned with the conduct of attorneys or, more recently, PG&E's handling of dangerous equipment that has started fires.

"You have a tension : Give lawyers wide latitude to be good advocates, but at the same time you cannot allow a dirty trick," Alsup said in the 2015 interview. "I'm pretty tough when I find somebody has pulled a dirty trick."

Alsup presided over the criminal case of Anthony Levandowski, the former self-driving car engineer who pleaded guilty to trade secrets theft and who he sentenced to 18 months in prison last year.

President Donald Trump pardoned Levandowski hours before his term ended Wednesday.

Alsup's decision to take senior status means there are now 13 district court vacancies in California: six in the Central District, four in the Southern District, two in the Eastern District, and one in the Northern District.