I was thoroughly impressed with the judge who presided over the last ruling -- IIRC he went so far as to learn at least the basics of Java to the point where I remember being impressed by the insight of the questions he posed. There are subsets of law one can specialize in ranging from medical malpractice to obscure patent litigation, but as far as I know there are no factors linking a presiding judge to a specific specialty. I really think other judges should follow the example he set and at least develop a core understanding in a similar fashion.

Edit: http://www.cand.uscourts.gov/wha/oraclevgoogle the original Alsup opinion

http://regmedia.co.uk/2014/05/09/oracle_google_appeal_opinio... The appeal opinion -- which, as it stands, rules that programming APIs are in fact copyrightable.

(Also, look at the list of counsel -- heavy hitters, damn.)

  Oracle appeals from the portion of the final judgment entered against it, and Google 
  cross-appeals from the portion of that same judgment entered in favor of Oracle as to
  the rangeCheck code and eight decompiled files. Because we conclude that the declaring
  code and the structure, sequence, and organization of the API packages are entitled
  to copyright protection, we reverse the district court’s copyrightability determination
  with instructions to reinstate the jury’s infringement finding as to the 37 Java
  packages. Because the jury deadlocked on fair use, we remand for further consideration
  of Google’s fair use defense in light of this decision.