Rachel Kovner

Rachel Peter Kovner (born September 29, 1979) is an American lawyer from New York and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Education

Kovner earned her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Harvard College, and her Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School, where she graduated with the highest GPA in the school's history, was inducted into the Order of the Coif, and served as the senior articles editor of the ''Stanford Law Review''."President Donald J. Trump Announces Fourteenth Wave of Judicial Nominees, Thirteenth Wave of United States Attorney Nominees, and Eighth Wave of United States Marshal Nominees" White House, May 10, 2018

Legal career

At the start of her legal career she served as a law clerk to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and then to Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Prior to her service in the United States Department of Justice's Office of the Solicitor General, she served for four years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where she served as trial counsel in ten felony trials and argued seven appeals in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

From 2013 to 2019, she served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Solicitor General's Office within the Department of Justice, where she had represented the United States in litigation before the Supreme Court. She has argued eleven cases before the Supreme Court and has briefed eleven additional cases.

Federal judicial service

In August 2017, Kovner was one of several candidates pitched to New York senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand by the White House as judicial candidates for vacancies on the federal courts in New York. On May 10, 2018, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Kovner to serve as a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. On May 15, 2018, her nomination was sent to the Senate. She was nominated to the seat that was vacated by Judge Carol Amon, who assumed senior status on November 30, 2016. On August 1, 2018, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On September 13, 2018, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 21–0 vote.

On January 3, 2019, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate. On April 8, 2019, President Trump announced the renomination of Kovner to the district court. On May 21, 2019, her nomination was sent to the Senate. On June 20, 2019, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 21–1 vote. On October 16, 2019, the Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 85–3 vote. Her nomination was confirmed later that day by a 88–3 vote. She received her judicial commission on October 17, 2019.

See also

* List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 9)

References

External links

*

Appearances at the U.S. Supreme Court
from the Oyez Project
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovner, Rachel Peter
1979 births
Living people
21st-century American judges
21st-century American lawyers
Assistant United States Attorneys
Harvard University alumni
Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
Lawyers from New York City
New York (state) lawyers
Stanford Law School alumni
United States Department of Justice lawyers
United States district court judges appointed by Donald Trump
21st-century American women lawyers
21st-century American women judges