Hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee - Nominations

Hearing

I join you in welcoming the nominees, their friends and families. We have three District Court nominees before us today.

I would note that the nominations of Mr. Orrick and Mr. Tigar were delivered to the Senate just one month ago, on June 11, 2012 with their nomination materials coming in after that date. So we have had about 13 legislative days to review these nominations. We have had a little more time to review Mr. Durkin's file with his nomination on May 21.

By contrast, President Bush's District nominees, waited, on average nearly 120 days from nomination to a hearing.

This is just another indication of the fair treatment we are giving President Obama's nominees. Having said that, I do not want anyone to think that these nominees are on some sort of "fast-track" process. We will give close scrutiny to the records of all nominees. This hearing is an important part of that record.

This Committee continues to make good and steady progress in confirming judicial nominees. After today we will have had a hearing for 42 nominees this year alone.

Yesterday we confirmed the 152nd District or Circuit nominee during President Obama's term so far. This is good progress. Again, welcome to the nominees and I look forward to this hearing. I will place the balance of my statement in the record regarding the biographical information on each nominee.

Mr. Durkin received his B.S. with honors from University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1975 and his J.D. with honors from DePaul University College of Law in 1978. Upon graduation, he clerked for Stanley J. Roszkowski, United States District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. After his clerkship, Mr. Durkin joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois. There, he handled a variety of cases, including bank robbery, postal theft, narcotics, immigration cases, firearms cases, commodities, securities and tax fraud, and political corruption. Mr. Durkin also held a number of supervisory roles in the office, including Deputy Chief of Special Prosecutions, Chief of the Criminal Receiving and Appellate Division, Chief of the Special Prosecutions Division, and First Assistant United States Attorney.

In 1993, Mr. Durkin joined Mayer Brown and focused on white collar criminal defense, internal investigations, patent litigation, securities litigation, civil rights litigation, consumer class action litigation, and product liability litigation.

Following graduation from Boston College Law School in 1979, Mr. Orrick began practicing law in Savannah, Georgia at Georgia Legal Services, a general legal practice representing low-income individuals in litigation. In 1984, Mr. Orrick moved to California to join the law firm of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy, & Bass, LLP. His practice with the firm initially focused on complex commercial litigation. After making partner in 1998, his practice broadened to include employment litigation.

During this same period, Mr. Orrick also served the Episcopal Bishop of California, essentially acting as outside general counsel. This included advising the Diocese on interpretation of church canons, the various rights of congregations leaving the Diocese, and clergy's duties to report child abuse.

In June 2009, Mr. Orrick joined the Department of Justice as a counselor to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division in Washington, D.C. His responsibilities included handling matters related to the Freedom of Information Act, tobacco litigation, increasing affirmative consumer litigation brought by the Civil Division, analysis of amendments to the False Claims Act, and efforts to increase access to justice.

In June 2010, Mr. Orrick was appointed Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division, Department of Justice. In this role, he oversees the Office of Immigration Litigation, which is comprised of over 300 lawyers. This office handles all federal appellate litigation arising from petitions for review from the immigration courts and roughly fifty percent of the civil United States District Court immigration matters, primarily class actions, and habeas and mandamus petitions. He also participates on several coordinating task forces that oversee immigration and national security related issues.

Upon graduation from Berkeley Law School in 1989, Judge Tigar clerked for the Honorable Robert S. Vance on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Judge Tigar then worked as an associate at the law firm of Morrison & Forester LLP, worked as a public defender in the San Francisco Public Defenders office, then joined the firm of Keker & Van Nest LLP in 1994, making partner in 1997.

The majority of Judge Tigar's private practice has focused on complex commercial litigation representing commercial entities. The matters included breach of contract, unfair competition, intellectual property, fraud, antitrust, RICO, the California False Claims Act, and partnership and shareholder disputes.

Governor Gray Davis appointed Judge Tigar as a Superior Court Judge for the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Alameda in December of 2001. He was reelected to this position in 2004 and 2010. During 2002, he was assigned to a General Criminal department, and was responsible for the pre-trial management of misdemeanor cases. From January 2003 through June 2005, he was assigned to a Family Law Department. He was assigned to a Civil Trial department from June 2005 through December 2009 and again reassigned to a Civil Trial department in September 2010.

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