Ninth Circuit Nominations!

The Merc reports as follows:

President Barack Obama nominated Michelle Friedland, a partner in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles & Olson, to the nation's largest appeals court, which shapes federal law in California and eight other western states. The president also nominated another Munger, Tolles & Olson partner, Los Angeles-based lawyer John Owens, to a second 9th Circuit vacancy.
The law firm has been a feeding ground for Obama's 9th Circuit picks. Judge Paul Watford, who joined the 9th Circuit several years ago, also came from there.
(Full article.)

Here's how Scott Graham starts his article in the Recorder on the nominations:

Younger. More West Coast. And a lot more Munger, Tolles & Olson-y.
That's how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is going to look if President Barack Obama's latest nominations can win Senate confirmation. Another Munger partner, Paul Watford, was confirmed to the court last year.
Obama nominated Munger partners Michelle Friedland, 41, and John Owens, 42, to the Ninth Circuit on Thursday. Each is described by colleagues as extremely intelligent, committed lawyers with impeccable credentials for the bench. Each also did prestigious clerkships for Republican- and Democratic-appointed appellate judges.