Judge Paul Grewal in his office in the federal courthouse in downtown San Jose, Calif., Friday, Jan. 23, 2015. Grewal, a San Jose federal magistrate judge, rang in the New Year in an unusual way for anyone in the club of those who wear black robes: he went public with his own Twitter account, "@iampaulgrewal." While most state and federal judges still shy away from social media, Grewal took the bold step, joining a small group of judges around the country who have decided it's time to jump into the Twitterverse. (Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group)
Judge Paul Grewal in his office in the federal courthouse in downtown San Jose, Calif., Friday, Jan. 23, 2015. Grewal, a San Jose federal magistrate judge, rang in the New Year in an unusual way for anyone in the club of those who wear black robes: he went public with his own Twitter account, “@iampaulgrewal.” While most state and federal judges still shy away from social media, Grewal took the bold step, joining a small group of judges around the country who have decided it’s time to jump into the Twitterverse. (Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group)

MENLO PARK, Calif. (Diya TV) — This week Facebook hired U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal for its in-house legal department, a man who has overseen a large number of intellectual property cases from his Silicon Valley bench. The news came at the heels of the 13th annual South Asian Bar Association North America’s convention, the first ever since its inception that Judge Grewal did not attend. His peers on the bench, Judges and colleagues while wished him well for his future endeavors were saddened to learn that he would be leaving the bench.

Grewal will officially begin his tenure with the social media giant next month,  to serve as Deputy General Counsel. In this position, he’ll oversee global litigation at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park.

After graduating from MIT and University of Chicago Law School, Grewal spent time clerking for judges and practicing intellectual property law at a number of law firms. He was elevated to judgeship in 2010.

“Paul has presided over hundreds of cases as Magistrate Judge in the Northern District of California, and has earned a reputation as a thoughtful and knowledgeable jurist with deep expertise in areas that are critically important to our company and our industry,” Colin Stretch, Facebook’s general counsel, in a statement. “We look forward to having him on our team.”

He has been a figure in a multitude of cases, most recognized easily being the Apple v. Samsung patent disputes. Recently, Grewal cleared the way for Oracle and Google to return to the courtroom for a second trial in their long-running copyright battle over the Android operating system. “After an earlier run at settling this case failed, the court observed that some cases just need to be tried. This case apparently needs to be tried twice,” Judge Grewal wrote.

Grewal will likely have plenty of work to keep him busy, which could begin immediately. Facebook recently lost its bid to dismiss a privacy lawsuit brought over the company’s facial-recognition software.

Just last month, Judge Grewal was recognized by Santa Clara University School of Law for his contributions to the legal community.