Judge Bemporad has been a United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Texas in the San Antonio Division since 2012. Before taking the bench, Judge Bemporad worked as an attorney in the Federal Public Defender’s office for the Western District of Texas for 22 years; he served as the Federal Public Defender starting in 2007. From 1988 to 1990, he clerked for Judge Edward C. Prado.
Judge Bemporad co-founded and has served for many years as regular faculty of the Federal Judicial Center’s Appellate Writing Workshop in Washington, D.C. He has also been a
member of the practicing faculty at St. Mary’s Law School since 2014, where he has taught courses in advanced legal writing, electronic surveillance and federal criminal law, and guest lectured on a number of other topics. In 2020, Judge Bemporad was the recipient of St. Mary’s Rosewood Gavel Award.
Judge Bemporad serves on the Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions for the District Judges Association of the Fifth Circuit, most recently assisting in the preparation of Pattern Jury Instructions (Criminal Cases) (2019 ed.). Until his appointment to the bench, Judge Bemporad was the primary author of An Introduction to Federal Sentencing. His other published works include articles in the St. Mary’s Law Journal and Voice for the Defense.
Judge Bemporad is a member of the San Antonio Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, the Federal Courts Committee of the San Antonio Bar Association, and the San Antonio Bar Foundation Fellows Program. He also serves as Chair of the San Antonio Division Criminal Justice Act Panel Classification Committee.
Judge Bemporad received his B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1985 (with highest honors), and his J.D. from Stanford University in 1988 (with distinction).