James Donato

James Joseph Donato (born July 29, 1960) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Biography Donato was born on July 29, 1960, in Pasadena, California. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1983 from the University of California, Berkeley. He received an Artium Magister degree in 1984 from Harvard University. He received a Juris Doctor in 1988 from Stanford Law School, where he was an executive board member of the Stanford Law Review. Donato served as a law clerk for Judge Procter Ralph Hug Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1988 to 1989. From 1990 to 1993, he was an associate at the law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP in San Francisco. He served as a deputy city attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney's Office from 1993 to 1996. He served as a partner at Cooley LLP from 1996 to 2009. From 2009 to 2014 he served as a litigation partner in the San Francisco office of Shearman & Sterling LLP. His practice concentrated on antitrust litigation and class action lawsuits. He is a past president of the Bar Association of San Francisco.