About Justin James
Justin James Gilio earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 2016 after completing undergraduate studies at Santa Clara University in 2011, where he majored in economics, Spanish and philosophy. He arrived at law school after four years of undergraduate study that combined quantitative and humanities coursework. Those academic choices set a tone for the practical and analytical work that followed in his legal career.
After graduating from Harvard, Gilio began his professional life in private practice as an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in 2016. He moved from firm life into the federal judiciary the next year, serving as a judicial law clerk at a U.S. Court of Appeals in 2017. That clerkship exposed him to appellate procedure, opinion drafting and the deliberations that shape federal precedent.
In 2018 he took a position as an Assistant United States Lawyer at the United States Lawyers Offices. That role placed him in a federal office based in Fresno, California. He handled filings, courtroom appearances and the routine demands of government practice. The job built on his earlier appellate work and on the litigation experience he had gained in private practice.
Outside of government work, Gilio has spent time in the classroom. In 2021 he served as an adjunct professor of law at San Joaquin College of Law. Students there encountered an instructor who had moved between appellate chambers, a major law firm and a federal office in a short stretch of years. Teaching allowed him to translate courtroom and clerical experience into lessons on legal writing and procedure.
Colleagues describe his path as one that moves quickly through several pillars of the legal system: private firm litigation, appellate adjudication and federal office service. That mix has produced practical familiarity with brief-writing, oral argument and the administrative demands of government practice. He has worked on matters that required coordination across offices and careful adherence to federal rules and timelines.
Gilio is based in Fresno, California. He serves at the U.S. Lawyers Office there and continues to work on federal and appellate matters in that office. His current practice focuses on federal litigation and appellate work in the Fresno office.
