By Jason Hoppin

The man was nattily attired, but other than that a bit out of place.

During a recent morning calendar, a plaintiff serving as his own lawyer -- armed with an overstuffed manila envelope and some pens -- approached Judge Charles Legge to confer about his wrongful termination case.

The Northern District judge asked the man a few questions and asked him to file an amended complaint.

Then the judge told him what a complaint was. How to write it. What to say. When to say it. How to cite the law. In short, the judge gave the pro se litigant an impromptu crash course in the law and courts.

"How long do you need?" Legge asked the man.

"A week, your honor?" the man said.

"If I give you a week, the lawyers will kill me," Legge laughed. Then he told the man he could take three weeks to file the complaint.

Legge is described as an even-tempered judge who will occasionally flash his wry sense of humor to break up courtroom tension. He famously once excused jurors for a holiday break with a rollicking, 600-word take on a popular Christmas poem. It began:

"'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the courts,

Not a prospectus was open, and no crimes and no torts."

That sense of humor could have come in handy during the decade-long patent infringement suit between Genentech Inc. and the University of California.

The complex, billion-dollar suit was in front of at least three other judges before it wound up before Legge.

"Judge Legge was instrumental in moving the case forward," said Morrison & Foerster partner Gerald Dodson, attorney for the university.

Legge is also described as one of the hardest working judges in the Northern District and a quick study.

"Charlie is probably one of the most organized and prepared judges you will ever run across," said defense attorney Jerrold Ladar.

"He's a very middle-of-the-road kind of guy. He'll let you try your case."

A former law partner of Legge's said the judge -- who he describes as conservative in private but moderate on the bench -- keeps his political leanings and his emotions to himself. "You will never see him get visibly angry or red," said Gilmore Diekmann Jr., of Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson. "Unless you know him very well, it will be hard to tell that he's angry with you."

Legge, who was called for jury duty last week, could not be reached for comment.

While the Genentech case was perhaps the highest-profile case Legge has presided over, it was not the first time he made headlines.

In 1997, he revoked bail and ordered sent back to England three Irish escapees from Belfast's infamous Maze prison. The men, three-fourths of the "H-Block 4," were accused members of the Irish Republican Army and had escaped to the Bay Area a decade earlier.

Legge was overturned by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which seemed almost apologetic in its decision.

"Although we commend the judge for his thoughtful and thorough disposition of the issues raised by these cases, we conclude that he erred," wrote Judge Dorothy Nelson.

Legge also refused to block implementation of Proposition 227, the 1998 initiative aimed at ending bilingual education in California schools.

But while Legge was on the bench, his former firm, Bronson, Bronson & McKinnon, was slowly unraveling. It closed last year.

Legge spent 28 years there doing commercial litigation, working his way up to managing partner.

In 1984, he was appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan.

A former partner said the move was natural.

"He was born to be a judge," said Terrence Ponsford, now a partner with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. "He has a great judicial temperament."