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All Ten of Norton’s Judicial Recommendations Confirmed by Senate

December 17, 2014

Amit Mehta confirmed last night

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that, with the confirmation last night of the last pending District of Columbia federal district court judge she has recommended to President Obama, Amit Mehta, all ten of Norton's district court judge recommendations to President Obama have been confirmed by the Senate. Mehta, who will be the first Asian Pacific American judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is currently a partner in the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, where he has been recognized by several legal publications for his exemplary work, including Super Lawyers, The National Law Journal, and Benchmark Litigation.

"We strived mightily for a perfect ten for our judges, and I've been pushing during the lame-duck session," Norton said. "We are fortunate to have so much talent to choose from. Today, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is one of the most distinguished and diverse in the nation."

Mehta is a graduate of Georgetown University, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and the University of Virginia School of Law, Order of the Coif. He clerked for Judge Susan Graber, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. After clerking, Mehta worked at Zuckerman Spaeder as an associate for three years, and then worked for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) for five years. At PDS, he represented indigent criminal defendants in trials, appeals and administrative proceedings. Having gotten first-rate criminal trial experience at PDS, he later rejoined Zuckerman Spaeder, where he has represented companies and individuals in a broad range of federal criminal matters, including bribery, political corruption, mail and wire fraud, export control and sanctions violations, and environmental crimes. He also has represented plaintiffs and defendants in federal civil matters, including antitrust and a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action. In a pro bono capacity, Mehta has devoted more than 450 hours since 2010 to post-conviction proceedings for an individual convicted of murder. He is also vice president of the board of directors of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. Mehta was born in India and moved with his family to the U.S. at the age of one.

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 Mehta 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 all ten of Norton's recommendations for district court judges – Ketanji Brown Jackson, Amy Berman Jackson, James E. Boasberg, Rudolph Contreras, Beryl A. Howell, Casey Cooper, Tanya Chutkan, Randolph Moss, and Robert Wilkins, who was the first of Norton's recommendations to President Obama for a vacancy on the district court. Wilkins is her first judicial recommendation to be promoted to the U.S. Court of Appeals.