Norton to Introduce Her District Court Recommendation Tanya Chutkan at Senate Judiciary Committee Confirmation Hearing Today

Chutkan Would be Third African American Woman Ever to Serve on District Court Here and Would Continue Norton's Perfect Record of Confirmed Recommendations Under Obama

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today at 10:00 a.m. in Dirksen Senate Office Building 226, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will introduce Tanya Chutkan at her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing to become a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, as recommended to President Obama by the Congresswoman. If confirmed by the Senate, Chutkan would be the second African American woman appointed to the district court here in 32 years, only the third to ever serve, and the second currently on the bench, joining Ketanji Brown Jackson, another Norton recommendation. Chutkan is currently a partner at the law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, where the focus of her practice is complex civil litigation, especially antitrust class actions, but also white collar criminal defense and corporate investigations.

"It is a happy coincidence that Tanya Chutkan is being considered for one of the most distinguished courts in the United States during Black History Month," said Norton. "Her broad criminal and civil legal experience and professional reputation will make her a very able addition to our distinguished bench."

Before joining Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP in 2002, Chutkan was a trial attorney and supervisor at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, and had worked at the law firms Donovan, Leisure, Rogovin, Huge & Schiller and Hogan & Hartson LLP (now Hogan Lovells). Chutkan is a graduate of George Washington University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she served as an Assistant Editor of the law review.

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 Chutkan 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 six of Norton's other recommendations for district court judges – Ketanji Brown Jackson, Amy Berman Jackson, James E. Boasberg, Rudolph Contreras, Beryl A. Howell and Robert L. Wilkins. Wilkins now serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Another Norton recommendation, Casey Cooper, was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year and is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate.

Published: February 25, 2014