Hunter Biden Tax Case Judge Is Trump Appointed Patent Expert

Mark Scarsi, the Trump-appointed judge overseeing the criminal case against Hunter Biden, brings decades of experience in intellectual property law and a history of bipartisan support.

Scarsi, who previously defended tech giants including Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google in patent disputes, will preside over the president’s son’s trial in Los Angeles on felony tax and other tax-related charges. Biden is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.

Scarsi is said to be open-minded, a good communicator, and a largely apolitical judge unlike some Donald Trump appointees who’ve drawn criticism over their conservative ideology from the bench.

A former Milbank partner appointed to the Central District in Los Angeles in 2020, Scarsi sailed through Senate confirmation, 83-12, and unanimous “well qualified” rating from the American Bar Association.

“He’s just a sort of big firm, conservative lawyer,” said Paul R. Gugliuzza, an intellectual property law professor at Temple University. “If you’re thinking about the dynamics of trying to appoint a district judge in a state with two Democratic senators, you get guys like Mark Scarsi, who are high-profile, well connected, private practice lawyers but aren’t really political firebrands or politically objectionable in any way.”

Biden also faces firearms charges in Delaware federal court. Judge Maryellen Noreika, another Trump appointee who similarly has decades of experience as a patent litigator, is presiding over that case.

Scarsi was born in 1964 in Syracuse, N.Y., and he earned both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Syracuse University, before attending law school at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Milbank Partner

He came to the bench after more than a decade as a partner at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, and most recently as managing partner of the firm’s Los Angeles office. Before that, he spent almost 10 years with O’Melveny & Myers, according to his Senate Judiciary questionnaire. Before he became a lawyer, he was an engineer for Lockheed Martin Corp.

Scarsi has also been a member of several conservative legal organizations, according to the questionnaire, including the Federalist Society, Lincoln Club, and the Republican National Lawyers Association. As an attorney, he donated money to the campaigns of mainstream Republican conservatives likethe late Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), according to Federal Election Commission records. Hatch was a former Senate Judiciary Committee chair and Sasse a member of the panel.

As a trial attorney, Scarsi argued a number of cases at the federal court on which he now sits.

He served as lead counsel for Apple in a late 2013 jury trial as part of a patent infringement case brought by NetAirus Technologies, which resulted in a jury verdict finding in favor of Apple.

Mark Roth, who represented patent owner NetAirus in that case, described Scarsi as “one of the best trial lawyers I’ve ever gone up against.”

“He was very persuasive at the trial. He has a very measured tone, and never got flustered, never raised his voice,” Roth said.

Luke Dauchot, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis who was co-counsel with Scarsi while representing Apple against infringement claims at another trial in Texas federal court, said he was struck by Scarsi’s ability to connect with, and break down technical topics for, juries.

“When he tackled the details, there was a comfort level with the science. But again, when he needed to rise above the details, and get the concepts effectively communicated to the jury, he could let go of Mark Scarsi the Engineer, and he became very effectively Mark the Communicator to a jury,” Dauchot said.

Scarsi has continued to handle intellectual property and corporate disputes as a judge in the L.A. federal trial court, which has emerged as a top venue for intellectual property litigation.

In August, he ruled to invalidate a patent that had been asserted against eHarmony and Match Group Inc., which owns Tinder and Hinge. Scarsi also oversaw a trademark fight involving Nike Inc. and a Los Angeles manufacturer accused of selling knock-offs. The suit settled in 2022 after the judge denied the manufacturer’s request to dismiss Nike’s suit.

Scarsi hasn’t shied away from sharp language. In August, he reprimanded former shareholders for X, formerly known as Twitter, for filing an “overly burdensome” 110-page complaint that he said took the court “months” to read and interpret.

He told the shareholders that in future filings, he “does not intend to waste judicial resources scouring an overlong complaint to determine if an allegation of falsity is adequately supported.”

Last year, Scarsi ordered a rare retrial in a patent infringement case involving railway inspection technology, after finding misconduct, including “improper comments,” by the plaintiff’s counsel.

Gugliuzza said such an order is “pretty unusual” and “would suggest he is someone who values order and decorum in his courtroom.”

Financial Crimes

Still, Scarsi is also no stranger to cases involving financial crimes. In 2022, he sentenced actor Zach Horowitz, known as Zach Avery, to 20 years in prison for his involvement in a $650 million Ponzi scheme.

And last year, he handed down a five-year prison sentence to an Orange County real estate finance business owner in a securities fraud case.|

Dauchot said he believed Scarsi would be “ideal” for a high-profile case like the Hunter Biden trial, pointing to “his calm, level-headed open-minded approach and his attention to detail.”

“He’s not an individual who’s ever struck me as having an agenda of any sort. I think that all translates to a fair judge,” Dauchot said.