Firm Watch
Aug. 6, 2002
Orrick Litigator Receives Judicial Nod
For the second time in two years, an Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe litigation partner is headed for the bench. On July 25, the White House sent Jeffrey White's nomination for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
For the second time in two years, an Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe litigation partner is headed for the bench.
On July 25, the White House sent Jeffrey White's nomination for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., predicts an easy ride to confirmation for the Orrick Herrington attorney. If confirmed by the committee and by the full Senate, White will fill what likely will be the only vacancy on the court until the next presidential election.
For 15 years, White, 56, has served as national chairman of Orrick's litigation department in San Francisco. He is a trial lawyer who focuses on employment, fraud, white-collar crime, securities, antitrust, environmental and construction cases.
His clients include Siebel Systems Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc., and Oracle Corp.
"The judicial selection committee recommended him to the White House on a bipartisan 6-0 vote. I am delighted that he has been nominated, and I would anticipate him being confirmed by the Senate," says Feinstein, who serves on the 19-member Judiciary Committee.
In addition to his litigation practice, White has spent 20 years teaching civil trial practice at Boalt Hall. He lives in Moraga with his wife and two sons.
White, afraid of jeopardizing his chances, has been quiet about his selection.
"I'm pleased and humbled that the president has placed his confidence in me, and I'm gratified that he has done so," White says.
His nomination comes just 11/2 years after a fellow litigation partner - Steve Brick - found his way to the bench. In November 2000, Gov. Gray Davis appointed Brick to the bench of the Alameda County Superior Court.
"The way Jeff thinks about issues is open and never dogmatic," Orrick Herrington Chairman Ralph Baxter says of his firm's most recent judicial selection. "He's not an ideologue."
The praise was not universal, however. An attorney who has worked as opposing counsel to White complains that White was reluctant to extend "the normal professional courtesies between lawyers," such as agreeing to extend filing deadlines.
"He'll be a perfect fit with his colleagues on the bench," says the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Federal judges forget they were lawyers at one point, too."
Sam Chapman, a spokesman for Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., says White is widely respected in the legal community.
Still, Chapman adds, "We don't have a Democratic administration in Washington that is nominating federal judges, so we aren't able to pick exactly the people who we think would be the most ideal federal judges."
While White called himself "apolitical," professor Eleanor Swift, a colleague of White's at Boalt Hall, describes him as a moderate Republican who is not politically active.
"The Democratic leadership recognized in him the qualities of a really fine judge," Swift says. "Jeff is not someone who has been grooming himself to be chosen in this intensely political environment of judicial appointments."
Before joining Orrick, White was a trial lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice. He served as chief of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney's office for Maryland. He earned his law degree at the State University of New York, Buffalo, in 1970.
Joel Rosenblatt
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