Legal News

Judicial Nominees Disclose Net Worth, Income

By David Ingram

Two nominees for the federal bench, both with ties to large law firms, each has a net worth in seven figures, according to financial disclosure reports they submitted to the U.S. Senate.

William Kuntz II, a partner at Baker Hostetler in New York, reported a household net worth of $7.7 million, including $3.1 million in real estate, and zero liabilities. President Barack Obama nominated Kuntz this month for U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Kuntz, who?s been in private practice for more than three decades, was of counsel at Constantine Cannon before moving to Baker Hostetler in 2005. For 2010, he reported firm income of $305,000 and per diem from New York?s Civilian Complaint Review Board of $5,670.

Wilma Lewis, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, reported a household net worth of $2.4 million. That includes $1.9 million in real estate, $220,000 in personal property such as automobiles and $829,591 on a mortgage. Obama nominated her this month for district court for the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Lewis was a partner at Crowell & Moring in Washington from 2001 to 2007, after having served as U.S. attorney. She then managed litigation at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., also known as Freddie Mac, and joined Interior in 2009.

In a document separate from her financial disclosure report, Lewis outlined for senators the process she followed to get nominated ? a process that took two and a half years. She applied to a local nominating committee in September and October 2008, and she won the committee?s recommendation in December 2008.

But it wasn?t until September 2010, Lewis wrote, that she found out that Donna Christensen, the U.S. Virgin Islands? delegate to Congress, was supporting her candidacy. She doesn?t give a reason for the delay, but her contact with the Justice Department?s vetting team started the next month, on Oct. 12.

Kuntz told senators that he applied in September 2009 to a screening committee that reports to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and that he met with Schumer and his staff in October 2010.

Full post as published by The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times on March 28, 2011 (boomark / email).