Orange County Judge Rated ‘Well Qualified” for Federal Bench by ABA

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

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Orange County Judge Rated ‘Well Qualified” for Federal Bench by ABA

By a MetNews Staff Writer

Orange Superior Court Judge James V. Selna, nominated by President Bush for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, has received a highly favorable rating from the American Bar Association, the association reported yesterday.

The ABA’s Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary reported on its website that Selna received the highest possible rating, “Well Qualified,” from a “substantial majority” of the committee’s members of. A substantial majority, under the committee’s guidelines, means that at least 10 of the 15 members voted for that rating.

The remaining member or members abstained, the committee reported. The committee includes at least one member from each of the federal circuits.

Selna was nominated Jan. 29 for the seat left vacant when Judge J. Spencer Letts took senior status in December 2000.

There is one other vacancy on the court, a result of Carlos Moreno’s appointment to the California Supreme Court. Orange Superior Court Judge Cormac J. Carney was nominated last year for the Moreno seat and was rated “qualified” by a substantial majority of the ABA committee, with the remaining member or members abstaining.

Selna, 58, was named to the Orange Superior Court by then-Gov. Pete Wilson on New Year’s Eve, 1998, just before Wilson left office. Before joining the bench he was a partner at O’Melveny & Myers, having joined the firm in Los Angeles right out of Stanford Law School in 1970 and moved to the Newport Beach office in 1978.

His practice focused largely on business litigation, including antitrust and trade secrets issues. He also arbitrated as a member of the National Panel and Large Complex Case Panel of the American Arbitration Association.

As a Superior Court judge, his assignments have included long-cause civil trials, criminal cases at the Fullerton courthouse, and civil fast-track. Off the bench, he has served as president and general counsel of the Newport Harbor Art Museum, as a director of Phoenix House, and as a trustee of the county law library.