Hon. Paul Grewal

Judge Paul Grewal is the tech judge for the techiest federal district court in America. When the titans of Silicon Valley go to trial, the issues deal as much with tech issues as legal ones. And when those cases get to court (think Apple v. Samsung), the court can refer them to Judge Grewal, an IP lawyer who got his undergraduate degree from MIT and who clerked on the Federal Circuit before practicing as an intellectual property lawyer. Much of the future of tech will be litigated, and mostly in the Northern District of California – and many of those cases will go through Judge Grewal. The judge also joins (Class of 2014 Fastcase 50 winners) Judge Don Willett and Judge Stephen Dillard as one of the funniest judges on Twitter, and he gets bonus points for delivering a lecture on Tatooine Law at San Diego Comic Con this summer.