Legal News

Hazarding guesses at next bench picks

By Richard Binder

A day after President Obama picked his first nominee for the federal bench, there is rampant speculation over who will fill the vacancies on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In California, three Northern District judges are seen as contenders for the 9th Circuit. But the district court isn't the only Northern California constituency eyeing a spot on the bench.

Goodwin Liu, an associate dean at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law and a Stanford University trustee, is a likely candidate.  At a relatively young 38 years of age, Liu came to Boalt Hall in 2003 and is co-director of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity. He also worked on President Obama's transition team for the Department of Education and is a former clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Another name being bandied about is Jon Streeter, a Keker & Van Nest partner. Streeter got his start out of law school as an extern to Northern District of California Senior Judge Thelton Henderson. A commercial litigator, he came to Keker in 1997 after 15 years at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Read details at The Recorder.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).