Michael W. Fitzgerald

Michael Walter Fitzgerald (born July 11, 1959) is a judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Fitzgerald was born in Los Angeles, California, on July 11, 1959. He earned an A.B. from Harvard College in 1981 and a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1985. After law school, Fitzgerald worked as a law clerk for Judge Irving Kaufman on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Fitzgerald worked at the Law Offices of Robert L. Corbin from 1995 to 1998 and at Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe from 1991 to 1995. From 1988 until 1991, Fitzgerald worked as an assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California. Since 1998, Fitzgerald has been part of a small Los Angeles law firm, Corbin, Fitgerald & Athey, which handles white collar criminal defense and business litigation.

On July 20, 2011, President Obama nominated Fitzgerald to the judicial seat on the United States District Court for the Central District of California formerly held by Howard Matz. Fitzgerald is the fourth openly gay candidate nominated by Obama to a federal judgeship, after Edward DuMont, J. Paul Oetken, and Alison J. Nathan. He received a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 4, 2011, and the committee reported his nomination to the floor of the Senate on November 3, 2011, his nomination being placed on the Senate Executive Calendar that same day.

On March 15, 2012, the Senate confirmed Fitzgerald in a 91–6 vote. He received his commission the same day.

Fitzgerald is openly gay and was the first openly LGBT person to be appointed to the federal bench in California.