James Donato

Pseudo-intellectual jerk with life tenure.

Uninformed, intellectually dishonest and painfully arrogant—and bluntly, somewhat sadistic toward younger and especially female attorneys. I have never witnessed this level of unprofessionalism in my nearly 30 years of practice, and find it shocking he's allowed to continue on the bench given the frequency and breadth of complaints.

The worst judge I have ever encountered. Lazy, arrogant, unprofessional, unprepared and seemingly irritated by his job. I've seen him berate a lawyer for calling him "sir" rather than "your honor." Very abusive to the attorneys who appear before him. He is unpredictable and mercurial. He often lectures counsel about his list of standing orders, but then enforces them inconsistently. He shows no regard for the costs involved in litigation and lets aggressive counsel abuse the system. He has a horrible memory and does not remember what happened in the last hearing - or even if the prior day of trial. He takes sides and rules accordingly. He seems thoroughly uninterested in doing a good job and seems to have forgotten the oath he took to administer justice.

Judge Donato regularly cancelled hearings on substantive motions the night or just hours before, thus forcing the parties to prepare for nothing as he would later rule on the papers. In those orders, both sides agreed that he regularly got the most basic facts surrounding the case blatantly wrong. He also failed to address numerous substantive arguments and seemed more interested in pushing the clients to settle than to actually deciding issues. If there is an easy route, he will take it.

The judge is tough but is very focused on getting to the right result. He's smart and willing to put in the time even on complex and novel issues. He's probably the leading judge on issues of ensuring class action settlement money gets to class members, issuing decisions that will be relied upon for decades.

The harsh comments had me scared before appearing in Judge Donato's courtroom. I too was admonished by the Judge for a fairly innocuous comment. However, I felt Judge Donato was fair, impartial, intelligent, prepared, and willing to entertain counsel's arguments when the proper deference to his office is expressed. He is actually one of my preferred judges in the Northern District. Bad comments are likely from counsel who have a higher opinion of their skill than is warranted.

I am in the early stages of a very complex and multi-party case with Judge Donato. So far he has been pleasant in the past 2 years with counsel on both sides, and issued clear decisions on motions to dismiss and related matters. A bit slow in getting the case organized to move forward which is frustrating, but understandable.

Worst Article III judge before whom I have ever appeared. Consistently and repeatedly betated the attorneys who appeared before him. Worse, he does not appear to have any trial experience before taking the bench.