Judge John W. Holcomb was appointed to the Central District of California by President Donald Trump in 2020. He sits in the Southern Division in Santa Ana.
Holcomb attended MIT on a Naval ROTC scholarship, earning a B.S. in civil engineering. He served five years as an active-duty naval officer before earning a joint J.D./M.B.A. cum laude from Harvard. After clerking in the Northern District of Illinois, he spent his career in intellectual property litigation, primarily at Knobbe Martens where he became a partner in 2002, and later at Greenberg Gross where he also served as mediator and Special Master.
Education
- Harvard Law School, J.D., 1993 (cum laude)
- Harvard Business School, M.B.A., 1993
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, B.S. in Civil Engineering, 1984
Career
- U.S. Navy, active duty (including USS New Jersey and Pentagon Joint Staff), 1984–1989
- Law clerk, Judge Ronald Barliant, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois, 1993–1994
- Associate, Irell & Manella, 1994–1997
- Associate and partner, Knobbe Martens, 1997–2018
- Partner, Greenberg Gross, 2019–2020
- U.S. District Judge, Central District of California, 2020–present