U.S. District Judge James Otero of the Central District of California will be retiring later this month after 32 years on the state and federal bench.

A longtime member the Central District of California's patent pilot program, the 68-year-old judge will join JAMS effective May 1 as a mediator and arbitrator. "I intend to bring my experience in IP and as a state court judge to help resolve complex matters," Otero said by email Monday.

"Given the closure of state and federal courts, the IP legal sector is especially suited to go forward with hearings and mediation in electronic virtual format, until matters settle," he added.

Otero took senior status a little over a year ago and has worked his caseload down from over 400 to under 100. "I did not want to leave my already overburdened colleagues with additional cases," he said. The court reassigned many of the cases that do remain to other judges last week.

Otero's departure will be especially felt in the IP bar. When the Central District launched its Patent Pilot Program in 2012, Otero was one of the original four judges who volunteered to handle extra patent litigation from around the district. In the five years prior to taking senior status he handled about 30 patent cases a year on average.

"We'll miss him as a patent judge for sure," said Maschoff Brennan partner Charles Barquist.

Otero worked in the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office before Gov. George Deukmejian appointed him to Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1988 and then to superior court in 1990. President George W. Bush appointed Otero to the federal bench in 2003.

Barquist remembers litigating one of Otero's first Markman hearings in a mid-2000s case on power amplification technology. "He was fully engaged and really interested," Barquist said.

Irell & Manella partner Morgan Chu litigated one of Otero's last trials, a case over a groundbreaking cancer treatment that resulted in a $750 million jury verdict for Chu's client. "Judge Otero handled complex patent cases with great intelligence, balance and aplomb," Chu said.

Before dismissing the jury in that case, Otero spoke for a few minutes about the patent system. "What was important about the case, I think you saw it, that is all these amazing people from all over the world come to the United States because our system incentivizes these very intelligent people to come here to develop these significant technologies," Otero said. "And it's amazing that when our country was founded, that the issue of patents were placed in the Constitution. Visionaries at the time."

Otero also drew brief notoriety in 2018 when presiding over adult film star Stormy Daniels' suit against President Donald Trump to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement about their affair. Otero dismissed the suit after the president and his adviser Michael Cohen agreed not to seek penalties for violating the deal.