Judge nominee heads for Senate hearings

Reno attorney Miranda Du and four other nominees are scheduled to appear Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

President Barack Obama nominated Du, 41, in August to serve as a U.S. district judge in Nevada.

"I don't think she's going to be controversial or anything," said Carl Tobias, a former law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

If given the lifetime appointment, Du would fill the vacancy created when U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt took senior status in May. Tobias said he expects the judiciary committee to vote in a few weeks to put Du's nomination to a vote before the full Senate.

"I think she'll be lucky to get confirmed in 2011, given how many people are in front of her," said Tobias, who teaches law at the University of Richmond in Virginia.

Du completed a 27-page questionnaire for the judiciary committee. She also was rated by the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary.

While the standing committee's rating becomes public after a nomination is made, a report detailing the investigation is kept confidential. The 15-member committee rates nominees either "well qualified," "qualified" or "not qualified."

In Du's case, a "substantial majority" of the committee rated her "qualified," but a minority rated her "not qualified."

The Bar Association committee has evaluated 97 judicial nominees this year. All of the nominees were rated either "qualified" or "well qualified," but only seven nominees other than Du received a "not qualified" rating from a minority of the committee.

Tobias doubts that will hinder her confirmation. After all, Gloria Navarro had the same rating before she was appointed to the U.S. District Court bench in Nevada last year.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., recommended both Navarro and Du to the president.

After Navarro's rating received publicity last year, Reid went on the offensive, telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that the American Bar Association's committee puts too much weight on whether judicial nominees have prior bench experience and overlooks "real world" qualifications.

"I think the ABA should get a new life and start looking at people for how they are qualified and not whether they have judicial experience," Reid said at the time.

Like Du, Navarro had no judicial experience before her nomination.

Tobias said Reid may again choose to defend his nominee by criticizing the Bar Association committee.

"I think it was effective," the law professor said.

Tobias noted that Republicans also have criticized the group in the past by complaining that it was too liberal.

In 2001, the Bush administration stopped submitting the names of prospective nominees to the American Bar Association for evaluation. In 2009, the group resumed its practice of providing the White House with its ratings of prospective nominees.

Tobias speculated last year that Navarro's rating had suffered from a lack of judicial experience. He said that also could explain Du's rating.

"It's impossible to know, because it's secret," he said.

Tobias said both women had about the same amount of experience at the time of their nominations.

Du joined the McDonald Carano Wilson law firm in 1994 as an associate and has been a partner since 2002.

"The ABA may not appreciate the kind of experience she's had," Tobias said.

McDonald Carano Wilson may not be a "big-city firm," the law professor added, "but no firm in Nevada is."

He noted that Larry Hicks, a U.S. district judge in Nevada, was a partner at the firm from 1979 until President George W. Bush appointed him to the bench in 2001. Daniel Bogden, the U.S. attorney for Nevada, also was a partner at the firm.

According to a statement released by Reid's office, Du is a refugee of Vietnam who immigrated to the United States when she was 9. She would be the first Asian-American to serve as a U.S. district judge in Nevada. Navarro was the first Hispanic woman to hold that position in Nevada.

Tobias said half of Obama's judicial nominees have been women, and a large percentage have been minorities.

"It's just interesting how diverse the bench is getting everywhere," the law professor said.

In August, Reid said he had learned about Du from his son, Leif, also a Reno attorney.

"He said, 'Dad, she really is just a great lawyer,' " the senator told the Review-Journal.

According to the questionnaire Du filled out for the Senate Judiciary Committee, she received her law degree in 1994 from the University of California, Berkeley.

When she joined McDonald Carano Wilson, her primary area of practice was environmental and water law. She was appointed chairwoman of the firm's employment and labor law group around 2003 and has held that position since.

"My typical clients in terms of my civil litigation practice are businesses involved in disputes in federal and state courts," Du wrote.

She indicated that 80 percent of her practice involves matters in federal court.

In 2008, Gov. Jim Gibbons named Du to the Nevada Commission on Economic Development.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710.