Paul J. Watford

Paul Watford is a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of King & Spalding. He joined the firm in February 2025 after serving for 11 years as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Paul received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989 and his law degree from the UCLA School of Law in 1994. From 1994-1995, Paul served as a law clerk to Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and from 1995-1996 he served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court. From 1997 to 2000, Paul served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, and from 2001 until his appointment to the bench, Paul was in private practice at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP in Los Angeles, where his practice focused primarily on appellate litigation.