On September 16, 2020, the U.S. Senate confirmed Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd W. Robinson as a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of California. Robinson fills the seat formerly held by Judge Marilyn L. Huff, who took senior status in September 2016.
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Robinson received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1989. While at U.C. Berkeley, Robinson was the Captain of the Varsity Swimming Team and an NCAA Division I Swimming All-American (1989).
Robinson later received his J.D., with honors, from Georgetown University Law Center in 1993. During law school, Robinson participated in a clinical program with the Office of the State’s Attorney in Annapolis, Maryland. Under the supervision of an Assistant State’s Attorney, Robinson tried six jury trials and approximately twenty misdemeanor bench trials.
After law school, Robinson began a long career as a federal prosecutor. From 1993 to 1997, he served as a Trial Attorney for the Department of Justice’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section in Washington, D.C. In 1997, he joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. Robinson briefly left the Department of Justice to work as an Operations Officer for the Central Intelligence Agency in 2004. He returned to the Southern District’s U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2005, where he remained until his confirmation.
As a federal prosecutor, Robinson tried approximately forty felony cases to verdict. Many of those cases involved multiple defendants and several weeks of trial. His professional honors include a Director’s Award for Superior Performance by a Litigation Team from the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys (2017); a Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys (2011); and Commendation Letters from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III for investigations that led to charges and successful prosecutions (2003, 2008, 2011).
Robinson will be the Southern District’s first new District Judge since Judge Cynthia Bashant took the bench in May 2014. The Southern District still has several vacancies, and four nominations are pending before the Senate.