[WardFive] Fw: PRESS RELEASE: Two Norton U.S. District Court Judge Recommendations Renominated by President Obama

Albrette "Gigi" Ransom

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From: "van Hoogstraten, Daniel" <Daniel.vanHoogstraten@mail.house.gov>
To: "van Hoogstraten, Daniel" <Daniel.vanHoogstraten@mail.house.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, January 7, 2014 11:58 AM
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: Two Norton U.S. District Court Judge Recommendations Renominated by President Obama

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                    Contact: Daniel van Hoogstraten

        January 7, 2014                                                                                        o: 202-225-8050

              c: 202-225-8143

 

Two Norton U.S. District Court Judge Recommendations Renominated by President Obama

 

WASHINGTON, DC – On the first legislative day of the second session of the 113^th Congress, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that President Obama renominated Christopher "Casey" Cooper and Tanya Chutkan to be judges on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, as recommended by the Congresswoman last year.  Both were nominated by the president last year, but were not confirmed by the Senate before the end of the first session of the 113^th Congress.

 

"I am pleased but not surprised that the president moved quickly to renominate our two exceptionally well-qualified candidates, Casey Cooper and Tanya Chutkan," said Norton.  "I am confident that both of these stand-out nominees, who each have the kind of broad criminal and civil legal experience that complements our distinguished district court, will continue along the path of excellence that has characterized their entire careers, and will be very able additions to our federal district court here."

 

Cooper, a longtime D.C. resident and an African American, is currently a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling LLP.  He is a graduate of Yale College, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and Stanford Law School, where he graduated with distinction and served as president of the law review.  He clerked for Judge Abner J. Mikva, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.  After his clerkship, he served as Special Assistant to then-Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick for two years.  When he left the Department of Justice, he joined the law firm Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, LLP (later merged into the law firm Baker Botts LLP), where he served as an associate and partner from 1996 to 2012.  After practicing in Washington, D.C. for his entire career, Cooper moved with his family to London, where he joined Baker Botts' London office, and in 2012 became a partner at Covington & Burling, and has since moved back to the District.

 

Chutkan, also a District resident, is a partner at the law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, where her practice focuses on complex civil litigation, especially antitrust class actions, but also on white collar criminal defense and corporate investigations.  If confirmed by the Senate, Chutkan would be the second African American woman appointed to the district court here in 32 years, only the third to ever serve, and the second currently on the bench, joining Ketanji Brown Jackson, another Norton recommendation.  Before joining Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP in 2002, Chutkan was a trial attorney and supervisor at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, and had worked at the law firms Donovan, Leisure, Rogovin, Huge & Schiller, and Hogan & Hartson LLP (now Hogan Lovells).  Chutkan is a graduate of George Washington University and University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she served as an Assistant Editor of the law review.

President Obama, like President Clinton, granted Norton senatorial courtesy to recommend candidates for federal district court judges and other important federal law enforcement officials in the District.  The Congresswoman recommended Cooper and Chutkan from a number of candidates screened by her Federal Law Enforcement Nominating Commission, chaired by Pauline Schneider, a special counsel at Ballard Spahr LLP and a former president of the D.C. Bar.   President Obama has nominated and the Senate has confirmed Norton's six other recommendations for district court judges – Ketanji Brown Jackson, Amy Berman Jackson, James E. Boasberg, Rudolph Contreras, Beryl A. Howell and Robert L. Wilkins, whom she believes will shortly be confirmed to join the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. 

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www.norton.house.gov