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More Nominations Sent To Senate

Today, President Obama nominated Ronnie Abrams to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and Rudolph Contreras to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.  

Ronnie Abrams currently serves as Special Counsel for Pro Bono at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, a position she has held since 2008. Previously, Abrams served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1998 to 2008, where she served as Acting Chief of the General Crimes Unit from 2004 to 2005, Chief of the General Crimes Unit from 2005 to 2007, and Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division from 2007 to 2008. From 1994 to 1998, Abrams was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Thomas P. Griesa of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1993 to 1994. Abrams earned a J.D. in 1993 from Yale Law School and a B.A. in 1990 from Cornell University.

Rudolph Contreras has been an Assistant United States Attorney for the past 17 years, representing the federal government in civil litigation. For the past five years, Contreras has served as Chief of the Civil Division in the United States Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia, having previously served in the same position in the District of Delaware from 2003 to 2006.

Contreras was recommended to President Obama by DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.

“Rudolph Contreras has had an unusually impressive legal career,” Norton said. “I am very pleased that the President has agreed to nominate this exceptionally well-qualified lawyer for our federal district court. Throughout his career as an assistant U.S. attorney and in private practice, he has demonstrated the consummate professionalism, intelligence, character, diligence, and collegiality that predict he will be an outstanding judge.”

Contreras, the son of Cuban immigrants, was born in New York but moved to Miami as a young child. He worked his way through Florida State University and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, cum laude and Order of the Coif, where he served on the law review. He spent the first three years of his legal career as a corporate litigator at Jones Day here, and has since been an assistant U.S. attorney in various capacities, including in important supervisory roles, mostly in the District of Columbia.

Contreras was hired from Jones Day by then-U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Eric Holder as an assistant U.S. attorney in the civil division. He spent his first four years defending the government and the next four years prosecuting claims at both the trial and appellate levels. 
Prior to beginning his service as a government attorney in the District of Columbia in 1994, Contreras spent three years as an associate at Jones Day. He received his J.D. cum laude in 1991 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and his B.S. in 1984 from Florida State University.

“I am honored to put forward these highly qualified candidates for the federal bench,” President Obama said. “They will be distinguished public servants and valuable additions to the United States District Court.”

The president also nominated Judge Evan Jonathan Wallach to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  Judge Wallach is currently a judge on the United States Court of International Trade.

Judge Wallach has been a judge on the United States Court of International Trade, based in New York, since 1995.  He has also served as an adjunct law professor on the law of war at numerous institutions, including Brooklyn Law School and New York Law School, since 1997.

President Obama said of Wallach, “Judge Wallach has distinguished himself throughout his legal career in both the public and private sectors. He possesses a keen intellect and a commitment to fairness and integrity that will serve him well as a judge on the Federal Circuit.”

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