Press Release: NAPABA Applauds Nomination of Florence Y. Pan to U.S. District Court — D.C.

For Immediate Release
April 28, 2016

For More Information, Contact​​:
Brett Schuster, Communications Manager
202-775-9555; [email protected]

WASHINGTON — Today, President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Judge Florence Y. Pan to serve on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. If confirmed, Judge Pan will be the first Asian Pacific American woman to serve as a federal district court judge in the District of Columbia.

“We applaud the nomination of Judge Pan to serve in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia,” said Jin Y. Hwang, president of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). “Judge Pan has demonstrated her ability as a fair and adept jurist in her seven years on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and we strongly encourage the Senate to confirm her to the federal bench.”

In 2009, Judge Pan was nominated by President Obama to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and was confirmed by unanimous consent by the Senate. She was the first judicial nominee to be confirmed under the Obama Administration.

Previously, she served for 10 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, including two years as the deputy chief of the appellate division. She also held positions in Department of the Treasury and the Department of Justice, notably in the Office of the Solicitor General. Judge Pan taught at Georgetown University Law Center and American University, Washington College of Law, and is active in her community having served as the Secretary of NAPABA’s Judicial Council. She formerly served as a law clerk for the Honorable Ralph K. Winter, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Michael B. Mukasey of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Judge Pan is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford Law School.

NAPABA commends President Obama for nominating Judge Florence Y. Pan to the federal bench and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia for her support of the nomination.

For more information, the media may contact Brett Schuster, NAPABA communications manager, at 202-775-9555 or [email protected].