Kirkland & Ellis Partner Confirmed to 9th Circuit Bench, Despite Calif. Senators’ Residency Concerns
Daniel Bress was confirmed in a 53-45 vote despite objections from California’s Democratic senators that he lived, worked and voted in the Washington, D.C., area.
With one more seat currently open on the court’s 29-judge active bench and Ninth Circuit Judges Carlos Bea of California and Jay Bybee of Nevada recently announcing their plans to take senior status, the president has the opportunity to further shape a court that he has frequently criticized for ruling against his administration. If Trump were to fill the current vacancy in Oregon as well as the seats currently occupied by Bybee and Bea, the court would have 16 active judges appointed by Democratic presidents and 13 by Republican presidents.
The 9th Circuit's Press Release is here.
Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Bress had been a partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Washington, D.C., since 2011. Before joining Kirkland as an associate in 2008, Judge Bress was an associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP in San Francisco from 2007 to 2008.
Born in Hollister, California, Judge Bress received his J.D., Order of the Coif, in 2005 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the Virginia Law Review from 2004 to 2005. He received his A.B. from Harvard College, magna cum laude, in 2001. Following law school, he clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, from 2005 to 2006, and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court from 2006 to 2007.
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