Judge Nathan Ray Scott received his B.A. summa cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1995 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1999. During law school, he served as an editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review and interned in the Major Crimes Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston. After passing the California bar in 2000, he worked at Kirkland and Ellis until 2003 when he joined Cox, Castle and Nicholson. His work in private practice focused on complex commercial litigation. In 2005 he became a senior appellate court attorney at the State of California Court of Appeal, Fourth District. He has been a member of the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County, the Orange County Bar Association, the California Latino Judges Association, Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Warren J. Ferguson American Inn of Court, served as counsel to the Rampart Independent Review Panel for the Los Angeles Police Department, participated in the ABA Task Force on Implementation of Section 307 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and judged at the UCLA Moot Court Competition. He was appointed to the bench in 2012 by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. and is a democrat.
Author
2020 – Anti‐SLAPP Anomalies, CJER/Appellate Judicial Attorney Institute
2018 – Communicating with Clarity and Civility, ABTL Young Lawyers Division
2016 – Protecting Your Record on Appeal, OCBA Family Law section
2016 – The Exceptional Appellate Lawyer, OCBA Appellate Law section
2015 & 2011 – Appellate Advocacy guest lecture, UCI Law School
2014 – Evidentiary Hearings in Family Court, LA Daily Journal
2012 – Appellate Advocacy guest lecture, Whittier Law School
2012 – California Supreme Court Update, Hispanic Bar Association OC
2011 – Inside the Appellate Courts, State Bar Annual Meeting
2011 – Winning Appeals from Start to Finish, Pincus CLE
2010 – Appellate Court “Secrets,” Finally Revealed, OC Lawyer
2009 – Appellate Mythbusting – The Recorder
2007 – Oral Argument at the California Court of Appeal, OC Lawyer
Awards
2019 – OC Trial Lawyers Association, of the Year
2019 – Hispanic Bar Association ‐‐ Orange County, of the Year
2014 – OCBA Appellate Law Section, Lifetime Service Award
2014 – Chapman Law School Minority Law Students’ Assn., Leadership Award
2011-2012 – Warren J. Ferguson American Inn of Court, President’s Award
2007-2008 – Constitutional Rights Foundation‐OC, Mock Trial Scorekeeper of the Year
2001 – City of Los Angeles, Rampart Review Panel commendation
Presentations
April 29, 2021 – The Judges’ Series: How Judges Think – Orange County Bar Association
Links
Orange County Superior Court – Local Rules
The Robing Room – Hon. Nathan R. Scott
Governor Brown Appoints Two to Orange County Superior Court – CA.gov
Crandall, Scott Appointed to Orange County Superior Court – Orange County Bar Association