Hon. Laurel Beeler

U.S. District Court, Northern District of California

United States Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler was appointed in 2010 to the Northern District of California. She has presided as a trial and settlement judge over hundreds of civil cases, including intellectual property, employment, civil rights, and commercial disputes.  Before joining the court, Judge Beeler was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District, prosecuting  complex  white-collar  cases  with  parallel  civil  components.  She  was  the  Office=s Professional Responsibility Officer and Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division. She was a law clerk to the Honorable Cecil F. Poole, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She trained as a mediator with the Northern District’s ADR Program, the Federal Judicial Center, and Harvard Law School.  Judge Beeler is a member of the Ninth Circuit Conference Executive Committee. She is one of four judges on the U.S. Department of Justice/Office of Defender Services Joint Electronic Technology  Working  Group.  She  chairs  the  Northern  District=s  Criminal  Practice  Committee, implemented the court’s reentry and diversion courts, and, with United States District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr., implemented and facilitates the court’s Racial Justice Working Group.  Judge Beeler was President of the Federal Bar Association for the Northern District, co-chair of the Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit, a board member of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF), and a member of the Ninth Circuit=s Jury Trial Improvement Committee. She is a member of BASF’s Criminal Justice Task Force and the Executive Committee of the Edward J. McFetridge American Inn of Court. Judge Beeler was named one of The Recorder=s A2012 Women Leaders  in  Law@ and  received  the  Northern  District  Judicial  Conference=s  Public  Service  Award, BASF’s Barristers Choice Award, the Federal Bar Association’s Inaugural Chapter Achievement award, and the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association’s 2018 Federal Judge of the Year award.  Judge Beeler taught Civil Trial Practice at U.C. Berkeley School of Law and Criminal Procedure at U.C. Hastings College of the Law. She has led rule-of-law projects in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Jordan, Ukraine, Turkey, Thailand, and the Philippines.  Judge Beeler graduated with honors from the University of Washington School of Law, where she was Order of the Coif and an Articles Editor on the Washington Law Review. She received her A.B. with honors from Bowdoin College.