Jacqueline Scott Corley

Jacqueline Scott Corley (née Jacqueline Marie Scott, born 1966) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. She served as a United States Magistrate Judge of the same court from 2011 to 2022.

Education
Corley graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with an undergraduate degree in 1988, and in 1991, graduated with her Juris Doctor degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was also an editor and articles chair on the Harvard Law Review.

Career
Upon graduation from law school, Corley served as a law clerk for Judge Robert Keeton of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1992.

She then practiced with the law firm of Goodwin Procter in Boston focusing on white collar criminal defense as well as complex commercial civil litigation from 1992 to 1994. Corley then worked as a litigation associate at the firm of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP in San Francisco from 1994 to 1997.

From 1998 to 2009, Corley served as the permanent law clerk to Judge Charles Breyer of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. She also served on the Northern District of California Alternative Dispute Resolution mediation and early neutral evaluation panels from 2006 to 2007 though her appointment in 2011.

From 2009 to 2011, Corley was a partner at the law firm of Kerr & Wagstaffe in San Francisco, where she had a focus on federal practice as a civil litigator. At Kerr & Wagstaffe, Corley represented government entities, individuals and institutions as plaintiffs and defendants in various cases involving patent, copyright law, trademark, defamation, constitutional law, malicious prosecution, class action, contract, and probate legal issues.

Federal judicial service
On May 18, 2011, Corley was appointed as a United States Magistrate Judge of the Northern District of California. She took her seat vacated by Judge Edward M. Chen, who was elevated as a district court judge in 2011. Corley also served as the Northern District of California's Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Magistrate Judge, in charge of coordinating the ADR program with the Court during her time as a magistrate judge. Her service as a magistrate judge was terminated on March 30, 2022, when she was elevated as a district judge.

On November 3, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Corley to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. President Biden nominated Corley to the seat vacated by Judge William Alsup, who assumed senior status on January 21, 2021. On December 1, 2021, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On January 3, 2022, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate; she was later renominated the same day. On January 13, 2022, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 16–6 vote. On March 16, 2022, the Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 63–35 vote. On March 17, 2022, her nomination was confirmed by a 63–36 vote. She received her judicial commission on March 30, 2022.

Notable cases
In 2023, Corley oversaw the lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to block the acquisition of Activision by Microsoft. She ruled that the FTC hadn't yet proven that the deal would harm consumers. The case is still pending appeal and is yet to have a final verdict.