Senate confirms five federal district court judges, one circuit court judge

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Senate confirmed five district court judges and one circuit court judge to the federal bench Wednesday night, bringing the total number of President Joe Biden's nominees confirmed to federal judgeships to 56.

Alison Nathan, who was confirmed by vote of 49-47 as a United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit, will be the second openly gay woman to serve as a federal circuit court judge.

Nathan has served as a judge for the Southern District of New York since 2011 and previously worked as a special counsel to the Solicitor General of New York. She spent a year with the White House Counsel's Office during the Obama administration as an associate White House counsel and special assistant to the president.

She worked as an associate with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Washington, D.C. and New York, and spent a year clerking for Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

Nathan earned her undergraduate degree from Cornell University and her law degree from Cornell Law School.

Hector Gonzalez was confirmed to a judgeship in the Eastern District of New York by a vote of 52-45. He will become the only active Hispanic judge in the district.

Gonzalez previously spent more than a decade as a partner at Dechert LLP where he chair's the firm's global litigation practice. From 1999 to 2011, Gonzalez was a partner at global law firm Mayer Brown. He also spent five years with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York as an assistant U.S. attorney and several years as an assistant district attorney in New York.

Gonzalez earned his undergraduate degree from Manhattan College, his master's from John Jay College of the City University of New York and his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

John Chun, previously a judge on the Court of Appeals for Washington state, was confirmed to a role as a United States District Judge for the Western District of Washington by a vote of 49-47. Chun will become the first Asian-American man to serve in that district.

Chun served as a judge on the King County Superior Court in Seattle for several years before serving on Washington's court of appeals. Before his time as a judge, he worked on commercial and employment litigation with several firms, including Summit Law Group and Preston, Gates & Ellis. He earned his bachelor's degree from Columbia University and law degree from Cornell Law School.

Cristina Silva, previously a judge on the Eight Judicial District Court, was confirmed to be a United States District Judge for the District of Nevada by a vote of 50-46.

Before her time as a judge, Silva was an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Nevada and held leadership positions in the U.S. Attorney's Office's criminal division. She also worked as an assistant state attorney in the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. Silva earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College and her law degree from American University Washington College of Law.

Also confirmed to the federal bench in the District of Nevada was Anne Rachel Traum, who garnered a vote of 49-47.

Traum spent more than a decade teaching at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law where she was a professor of law and associate dean.

From 2015 to 2016, Traum was special counsel in the Justice Department's Office for Access to Justice. As an attorney, she spent several years as an assistant federal public defender in Nevada and, before that, as a civil assistant U.S. attorney. Traum also spent time as a trial attorney with the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department.

She received her undergraduate degree from Brown University and her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.

Earlier in the day, Julie Rubin was confirmed to serve in the District of Maryland by a vote of 51-46.

Prior to her confirmation, Rubin was a judge on the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, a role she held since 2013. For 12 years, she was an intellectual property and employment law attorney law with the firm Astrachan Gunst Thomas Rubin. She also spent two years as an associate at Shapiro and Olander, a Baltimore law firm.

Rubin earned her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College and her law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law.

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