Leonard P. Stark

Professorial Lecturer in Law


2000 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20052

Judge Stark clerked for the Honorable Walter K. Stapleton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit during the 1996-97 term. From 1997 to 2001, he was a litigation associate in the Wilmington, Delaware office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he primarily handled corporate litigation and securities fraud cases in the Delaware Court of Chancery, Delaware Supreme Court, and federal court. Between 2002 and 2007, Judge Stark served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Delaware. As an AUSA, he worked on a variety of civil and criminal cases and argued five appeals in the Third Circuit.

Judge Stark was appointed as a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Delaware on August 6, 2007. He became a United States District Judge on August 16, 2010. Judge Stark served as Chief Judge of the District of Delaware from July 1, 2014, through June 30, 2021. Judge Stark's service as a District Judge concluded on March 16, 2021, when he became a Circuit Judge on the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

He has presided over more than 90 trials, including more than 60 patent trials (split about equally between jury and bench trials).  Judge Stark has handled more than 2000 intellectual property cases – most of them patent cases – which regularly comprised approximately half of his docket.

Judge Stark has also created and taught courses on complex litigation and pharmaceutical patent litigation at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.


BA, BS, MA, University of Delaware; DPhil, University of Oxford (Magdalen College); JD, Yale Law School