Robert C. Bonner is a former United States District Judge and a former United States Attorney for the Central District of California.

Judge Bonner is currently engaged in ADR services, including mediation and arbitration. Judge Bonner is affiliated with Phillips ADR’s distinguished panel of neutrals. He is also a member of the American Arbitration Association’s Master Mediation Panel.  He is a member of the American Arbitration Association panel of neutrals as well as FedArb’s former federal judges panel of arbitrators.  Judge Bonner is a former partner of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher where he specialized in high stakes and complex civil litigation.

Besides serving as a United States District Judge, Judge Bonner’s government service includes heading several federal agencies, including Commissioner of U.S. Customs Service and, following the homeland security reorganization, as the first Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the agency of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for securing the United States’ borders. Prior to that, Bonner was the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

In private practice, Bonner engaged in a wide array of civil litigation matters, ranging from commercial and contract disputes to antitrust, securities, construction, intellectual property and environmental litigation. He co-chaired Gibson Dunn’s white collar practice group and was involved in defending individuals and corporations being investigated by government authorities.

Judge Bonner has arbitrated and mediated a wide variety of disputes, including securities, antitrust, contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and intellectual property issues.

Judge Bonner is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a member of Caltech’s Board of Trustees and the Chair of its Audit and Compliance Committee. He is the former chair of the California Commission on Judicial Performance.

Judge Bonner received his B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Maryland and his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.

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