Born in Pasadena, California, Lorenz received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1957 and a Juris Doctor from California Western School of Law in 1965, where he was a member of the Campbell E. Beaumont chapter of Phi Alpha Delta.

He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of California from 1978 to 1981.

He was a Court appointed United States Attorney from 1980 to 1981.

Lorenz was nominated by President Bill Clinton on March 8, 1999, to a seat vacated by Rudi M. Brewster.

This biography of a federal judge in the United States is a stub.