Robert N. Scola Jr.

Robert Nichols Scola Jr. (born October 30, 1955) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Early life and education
Scola earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1977 from Brown University and a Juris Doctor in 1980 from Boston College School of Law.

Career
From 1980 until 1986, Scola worked in the Miami-Dade Office of the State Attorney. From 1986 until 1995, he worked in private legal practice, both as a sole legal practitioner and also as a criminal defense attorney. In 1995, Scola became a judge on Florida's Eleventh Judicial Circuit presiding over criminal, civil and family law matters.

Federal judicial service
On May 4, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Scola to serve as a judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Scola would fill the seat vacated by Judge Paul Huck, who took senior status in August 2010. The United States Senate confirmed Scola in a voice vote on October 19, 2011; he received his commission the following day. He assumed senior status on October 31, 2023.

Notable cases
On April 29, 2019, Scola, a cancer survivor, recused himself from a case against healthcare insurance company United Healthcare, stating, that the company's denial of treatment was "immoral and barbaric" and that his opinions regarding would prevent him from "deciding this case fairly and impartially."