Judiciary Watch

Senate confirms four to federal courts in Florida and Vermont

The Senate this week confirmed four judges to federal courts in Florida and Vermont.  Geoffrey Crawford was confirmed to the U.S. District Court in Vermont.  He received his J.D. from Harvard in 1980 and was an Assocaite Justice on the Vermont Supreme Court prior to his appointment. Carlos Eduardo Mendoza and Paul G. Byron were confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.  Mendoza graduated West Virginia Univ. College of Law in 1997 and has been a Judge with the Seventh Judicial Circuit in Palatka, Florida since 2011.  Byron is a graudate of the Louisiana State Univ. Paul M. Hebert Law Center and has been in private practice in Orlando since 2005 with Overchuck & Byron.  Beth Bloom was confirmed to the U.S. Dsitrict Court for the Southern District of Florida.  She is a 1988 graduate of the Univ. of Miami School of Law and has been a Circuit Court Judge for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in Miami since 2010.

Gayles, Yandle, and Mendoza confirmed to district courts

The Senate yesterday confirmed Salvador Mendoza, Jr., to be a U.S. District Judge in the Eastern District of Washington,  Staci Michelle Yandle, to the District Court for the Southern District of Illinois and Darrin P. Gayles  to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Gayles is a 1993 graduate of the George Washington Univ. Law School and has been a Circuit Judge in Miami Beach, Florida since 2011.  He is the first openly gay, black man to be confirmed to the federal bench.

Yandle received her J.D. from Vanderbilt Univ. School of Law in 1987 and has been litigating primarily personal injury, medical malpractice, nursing home abuse, and neglect and civil rights cases as a solo practitioner since 2007.

Mendoza received his J.D. from U.C.L.A. School of Law in 1997 and has been a Superior Court Judge in Kennewick, Washington since 2013.  Prior to taking the bench, he was President and Managing Attorney at Mendoza and Johnson, P.S.  He litigated approximately 75 criminal cases in state and federal court in his years in private practice.

Senate confirms three to District Courts

The Senate yesterday confirmed three judges to the federal bench: Hon. Leo T. Sorokin to the District of Massachusetts, Hon. M. Hannah Lauck to the Eastern District of Virginia, and Richard F. Boulware II to the District of Nevada.

Sorokin received his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1991 and has been a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Massachusetts since 2005.  Prior to taking the bench, he was an Assistant Federal Public Defender from 1997 to 2005.  Lawyers interviewed for the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary made the following comments about Sorokin:  “He’s an extremely sharp judge, extremely smart.”  “He has a perfect judicial temperament.”  “He’s very down to earth, reasonable and patient.”

Lauck is a 1991 graduate of Yale Law School and has been a Magistrate Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia since 2005.  Prior to taking the bench, Lauck clerked for Hon. James R. Spencer, was an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1994 to 2004, and an attorney with Genworth Financial, Inc.

Boulware is a 2002 graduate of Columbia Law School.  He was a trial attorney with the Federal Defenders office in New York from 2003 to 2007, and then with the Federal Defenders office in Nevada since 2007.

Senate confirms three to federal bench

The Senate yesterday confirmed Tanya S. Chutkan to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Bruce Howe Hendricks to be U.S. District Judge for the District of South Carolina, and Mark G. Mastroianni to the District of Massachusetts.

Chutkan comes to the bench from Boies, Schiller & Flexner, where she has been a partner since 2007.  She graduated the Univ. of Pennsylvania Law School in 1987 and was with the Public Defender Service in the District of Columbia from 1991 to 2002.  Hendricks has been a federal Magistrate Judge in South Carolina since 2002 and prior to taking the bench was an Assistant U.S. Attorney.   Mastroianni was in private practice as a sole practitioner from 1995 to 2011, focusing his practice on criminal defense matters in State and Federal court. Most recently, he served as District Attorney for Hampden County, Massachusetts.