Monday, March 31, 2003
Page 1
Orange Superior Court Judge James Selna Confirmed To U.S. District Court for Central District
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Orange Superior Court Judge James V. Selna has been confirmed as the newest judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
U.S. senators voted 97-0 on Thursday to confirm the 58-year-old jurist after less than two minutes of discussion. Selna was nominated Jan. 29 for the seat left vacant when Judge J. Spencer Letts took senior status in December 2000.
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, often representing technology companies in recent years. Among his antitrust clients was the National Football League.
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.
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 had his confirmation hearing this month.
Also Thursday, the Senate, by voice vote, confirmed Philip P. Simon to be U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Indiana. Simon is currently chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for that district, and is a former associate in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis.
The Senate received three new judicial nominations on Thursday.
John A. Woodcock Jr. was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine. He is a partner in a Bangor law firm, a trustee of Bowdoin College, and longtime chairman of the Board of Trustees of Eastern Maine Medical Center.
Mark R. Kravitz was nominated to the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. Kravitz is head of the appellate practice group at New Haven-based Wiggin & Dana, arguing before state and federal appellate courts..
He is also a visiting lecturer in law at Yale Law School.
L. Scott Coogler was nominated to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Coogler is a circuit court judge in Tuscaloosa.
Copyright 2003, Metropolitan News Company