Francis Marion Allegra (October 14, 1957 – August 27, 2015) was an American federal judge on the
United States Court of Federal Claims
The United States Court of Federal Claims (in case citations, Fed. Cl. or C.F.C.) is a United States federal court that hears monetary claims against the U.S. government. It was established by statute in 1982 as the United States Claims Court, ...
.
Early life and education
Allegra grew up in
Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated from
St. Edward High School in
Lakewood, Ohio. He graduated from Borromeo College of Ohio in 1978, with a degree in philosophy, and then, in 1981, received his
Juris Doctor (
magna cum laude) from the Cleveland-Marshall Law School at
Cleveland State University.
Following graduation, he served as a law clerk to Chief Trial Judge
Philip R. Miller of the
U.S. Court of Claims from 1981 to 1982.
[Joint Committee on Printing, Official Congressional Directory, 2013-2014 (2014), p. 879.]
Professional career
From 1982 to 1984, Allegra was an associate at the Cleveland law firm of
Squire, Sanders, and Dempsey,
where he specialized in tax and bond work. In 1984, he joined the Appellate Section of the Tax Division of the
U.S. Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
. From 1984 through 1994, he was an appellate litigator, handling many of the Tax Division's most complex cases in Federal courts of appeals throughout the country. During this period, Allegra steadily rose through the ranks of the Tax Division ranks, becoming first a special assistant to the assistant attorney general of the Tax Division and then counselor to the assistant attorney general of the Tax Division.
In 1994, Allegra was appointed counselor to the associate attorney general (the third-highest-ranking official at the Justice Department). Shortly after that, he was appointed deputy associate attorney general.
In the latter role, Allegra worked with the Tax and Antitrust Divisions, as well as with the National Economic and Domestic Policy Councils at the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
.
Federal judicial service
On October 22, 1998, at the age of forty-one, Allegra was appointed by President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
to be a judge on the
United States Court of Federal Claims
The United States Court of Federal Claims (in case citations, Fed. Cl. or C.F.C.) is a United States federal court that hears monetary claims against the U.S. government. It was established by statute in 1982 as the United States Claims Court, ...
.
Over his judicial career, he has issued more than 250 published opinions, on topics including tax, government contracts, intellectual property, takings, and military and civilian employment. From 2003 through 2010, Allegra was a member of the Information Technology Committee of the
Judicial Conference of the United States. Allegra assumed
senior status
Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...
on October 22, 2013.
Allegra was an
adjunct professor at the
Georgetown University Law Center
The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...
,
where he taught Litigation with the Federal Government and a seminar on sovereign immunity. In 2012, Georgetown awarded him the Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award, which is given annually to an adjunct professor who has made an extraordinary contribution to the Law Center. Allegra was also a frequent lecturer at
Federal Judicial Center programs and other programs involving intellectual property, tax, government contracts and the use of technology in judging. He was considered an expert on issues involving electronic discovery.
In the fall of 2013, Allegra co-authored (with Daniel B. Garrie), ''Plugged in: Guidebook to Software and the Law''.
Personal life
Allegra married his wife, Regina, in 1996. The couple had two sons. He was an avid
mineral collector
Mineral collecting is the hobby of systematically collecting, identifying and displaying mineral specimens. Mineral collecting can also be a part of the profession of mineralogy and allied geologic specialties. Individual collectors often sp ...
, who wrote a column—Legal Nuggets—for the ''Mineralogical Record''. He was also active in
Italian-American
Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...
affairs, particularly with the
Sons of Italy
The Order Sons of Italy in America ( it, Ordine Figli d’Italia in America, OSIA) is the largest and the oldest Italian American fraternal organization in the United States. A similar organization exists in Canada.
It has more than 600,000 me ...
. He was a former President of the Sons of Italy International Lodge #2522. He was a co-founder of the Friends of Charles Bonaparte.
Allegra died on August 27, 2015, of brain cancer.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allegra, Francis
1957 births
2015 deaths
Cleveland State University College of Law alumni
Deaths from brain cancer in the United States
Judges of the United States Court of Federal Claims
Lawyers from Cleveland
St. Edward High School (Lakewood, Ohio) alumni
United States Article I federal judges appointed by Bill Clinton