SAN FRANCISCO — As U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson prepares to retire Friday, his colleagues across the Northern District of California can expect their own dockets to grow as his 125-plus remaining cases are farmed out.

Before Henderson's routine cases hit the wheel for redistribution, he made sure there was a smooth handoff for what he calls his four “institutional” cases—long-running matters involving special education in East Palo Alto's Ravenswood City School District, racial profiling by the Oakland Police Department, inadequate health care in California's state prisons, and the monitor the judge installed to ensure PG&E Corp. implements changes as a result of it criminal conviction before him last year.

Henderson recently sat down with The Recorder to discuss the work that went into handing off his cases, his plans for retirement, and worries he has about “a president who refers to us as 'so-called judges' and has so little respect for the third branch of our government.” The following transcript was edited for space and clarity.