Judiciary Committee unanimously approves nominations of Michael Scudder and Amy St. Eve

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) released the following statement after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to advance the nominations of Michael Y. Scudder, Jr. and U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve to serve as Circuit Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, based in Chicago:

“Judge St. Eve and Mr. Scudder have the experience, integrity, and judgment that we look for in federal judges, and we expect them to serve with distinction on the Seventh Circuit. We appreciate the Administration working with us on this and again thank our nonpartisan screening committee for reaching consensus on nominees who will serve the people of Illinois well. We look forward to seeing these nominations through the full Senate and confirmed.”

Last year, Durbin and Duckworth established screening committees to assist them in evaluating candidates for vacant federal judgeship, U.S. Attorney, and U.S. Marshal positions in Illinois. The task of the screening committees is to review and vet candidates for the vacancies and advise the senators regarding the candidates’ qualifications and fitness for the position.

Bios of the nominees from the White House are included below:

Judge Amy J. St. Eve serves as U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, where she has served since her confirmation by the U.S. Senate and appointment by President George W. Bush in 2002. She also serves as an adjunct professor at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, where she teaches trial advocacy. Immediately before ascending to the bench, Judge St. Eve served as senior counsel for litigation at Abbott Laboratories. Before joining Abbott Labs, Judge St. Eve served for five years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois. Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Judge St. Eve served for two years as an associate independent counsel for the Whitewater Independent Counsel investigation in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she second chaired the successful prosecution of former Governor Jim Guy Tucker, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal for fraud. Before joining the Whitewater team, Judge St. Eve was a litigation associate in the New York City office of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. Judge St. Eve earned her B.A. from Cornell University and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Cornell Law School, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served as an articles’ editor on the Cornell Law Review.

Mr. Scudder is a partner of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where he has practiced complex civil litigation and white collar defense in the Chicago office since 2009. Before joining Skadden, Mr. Scudder spent two years in the White House Counsel’s Office serving as Associate Counsel and then as Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Advisor and General Counsel to the National Security Council. Before serving the President, Mr. Scudder spent four years at the United States Department of Justice; first, as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and later as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General on a national security team. Before joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Scudder practiced for two years in the Cleveland office of Jones Day. Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Scudder clerked for Judge Paul V. Niemeyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States. Since 2009, Mr. Scudder has served as an adjunct professor of trial advocacy at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and since 2013, he has served as a lecturer in law on national security and criminal law at the University of Chicago Law School. Mr. Scudder earned his B.B.A. from Saint Joseph’s College, where he was co-valedictorian, and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served as editor in chief of the Northwestern University Law Review.

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