Paul Watford serves as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, with chambers in Pasadena, California. He was nominated by President Obama on October 17, 2011, and confirmed by the Senate on May 21, 2012.

Judge Watford received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989 and his law degree from the UCLA School of Law in 1994. From 1994- 1995, Judge Watford served as a law clerk to Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and from 1995-1996 he served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court. From 1997 to 2000, Judge Watford served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, and from 2001 until his appointment to the bench, Judge Watford was in private practice at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP in Los Angeles, where his practice focused primarily on appellate litigation.