Robert Porter Patterson Jr.
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and confirmed by voice vote, Robert Porter Patterson Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He earned a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1950. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1923–2015
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1988
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Harvard College 1947 · Columbia Law School 1950
- Succeeded
- Percy Whitman Knapp
- Succeeded by
- George B. Daniels
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Southern District of New York succeeded Percy Whitman Knapp | Reagan (R) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
| Harvard College | B.A. | 1947 |
| Columbia Law School | LL.B. | 1950 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Patterson was assigned 5,375 district-court cases (1986–2014). Median time from filing to termination: 235 days across 5,373 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
On appeal
Of 54 of Patterson’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 41 were affirmed, 5 reversed or vacated, and 8 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.
In our data, Patterson authored 266 published opinions for the court (1989–2011). Most cited: Berman v. SUGO LLC (118 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Berman v. SUGO LLC | 580 F. Supp. 2d 191 | 118 |
| 1991 | Chrysler Capital Corp. v. Century Power Corp. | 778 F. Supp. 1260 | 88 |
| 1990 | In Re Par Pharmaceutical, Inc. Securities Litigation | 733 F. Supp. 668 | 69 |
| 1991 | Alexandrou v. Sullivan | 764 F. Supp. 916 | 64 |
| 1989 | Papanicolaou v. Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A. | 720 F. Supp. 1080 | 56 |
| 1991 | Rivera v. Sullivan | 771 F. Supp. 1339 | 49 |
| 1994 | Pan Am Corp. v. Delta Air Lines, Inc. | 175 B.R. 438 | 48 |
| 1996 | Sloane Overseas Fund, Ltd. v. Sapiens International Corp. | 941 F. Supp. 1369 | 41 |
| 1992 | Congress Financial Corp. v. John Morrell & Co. | 790 F. Supp. 459 | 41 |
| 2008 | Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. v. RDR Books | 575 F. Supp. 2d 513 | 38 |
| 1999 | Marks v. New York University | 61 F. Supp. 2d 81 | 37 |
| 1999 | In Re Gaming Lottery Securities Litigation | 58 F. Supp. 2d 62 | 35 |
| 1989 | Tadros v. Coleman | 717 F. Supp. 996 | 35 |
| 1990 | Clapp v. Greene | 743 F. Supp. 273 | 34 |
| 1991 | United Bank of Kuwait, PLC v. James M. Bridges, Ltd. | 766 F. Supp. 113 | 32 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 266 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed Robert Porter Patterson Jr.?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed Robert Porter Patterson Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1988.
- Was Robert Porter Patterson Jr. appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Robert Porter Patterson Jr. was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Robert Porter Patterson Jr.'s confirmation vote?
- Robert Porter Patterson Jr. was confirmed by voice vote on October 5, 1988. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Robert Porter Patterson Jr. on?
- Robert Porter Patterson Jr. was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
26 years on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).