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Floor Speech
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Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, the Senate will soon consider the nomination of Judge Eumi Lee to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
I rise today to share, briefly, more about this dedicated public servant and to encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting her nomination.
The proud daughter of parents who survived the Korean war before emigrating to the United States, Judge Eumi Lee was born in Wisconsin and raised in Tennessee. She earned her bachelor's degree from Pomona College and her law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.
After law school, Judge Lee clerked for several judges on the Federal bench--first, for the Western District of Tennessee, then in the San Francisco Bay area clerking on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Now, those early days also included time working on complex litigation and white-collar defense matters in private practice, as well as developing a strong pro bono practice.
After a number of years of developing core litigation skills, she began teaching as a professor at UC Hastings College of law, supervising clinical students in direct representation and appearing alongside her students in State court.
It is there that Judge Lee also cofounded the Hastings Institute for Criminal Justice. Recognizing her remarkable record and diverse experience practicing law, in 2018, then-California Governor Jerry Brown appointed Judge Lee to the Alameda County Superior Court, where she became the first Korean American ever appointed to serve on that bench.
In the more than two decades that she has spent learning, teaching, and practicing law, Judge Lee has not only gained a wealth of legal expertise, but she has constantly reached out to support others on their path as well.
She has consistently worked to mentor women, people of color, and those typically underrepresented in the legal profession, because Judge Lee knows that public service doesn't stop at the courthouse doors.
In private practice, in the classroom, and in the courtroom, she has demonstrated the intellect and independent mind needed to serve on the Northern District with distinction. And I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting her confirmation.
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