President Obama Nominates Two to Serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama will nominate Caitlin Halligan and Srikanth Srinivasan to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

“Caitlin Halligan and Sri Srinivasan are dedicated public servants who will bring their tremendous experience, intellect, and integrity to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,” President Obama said.  “This important court is often called the Nation’s second-highest court, and it stands more than a quarter vacant.  I remain deeply disappointed that a minority of the United States Senate blocked Ms. Halligan’s nomination last year and urge her reconsideration, especially given her broad bipartisan support from the legal and law enforcement communities.  Mr. Srinivasan will be a trailblazer and, like Ms. Halligan, will serve the court with distinction and excellence.”

Caitlin Halligan: Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Caitlin Halligan is General Counsel for the New York County District Attorney’s Office.  She is a nationally recognized appellate litigator who has practiced extensively before the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the appellate courts of the State of New York.

After graduating from law school, Ms. Halligan served as a law clerk to Judge Patricia M. Wald on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1995 to 1996, and subsequently to Justice Stephen G. Breyer during the Supreme Court’s 1997-98 term.  She was an associate at the law firm of Wiley, Rein, & Fielding in Washington, D.C., from 1996 to 1997, and at the law firm of Howard, Smith & Levin LLP in New York in 1998.  In 1999, Ms. Halligan joined the Office of the New York State Attorney General, where she initially served as the Office’s first Chief of the Internet Bureau, overseeing legal matters regarding privacy, online consumer fraud and securities trading, and other Internet-related issues.  In 2001, she became First Deputy Solicitor General of New York, and later that year was appointed Solicitor General of New York State.  As Solicitor General through 2006, Ms. Halligan managed a staff of nearly 50 appellate attorneys representing New York in federal and state appellate courts.  Her national peers selected her in each year from 2001 to 2005 to receive the “Best Brief” award from the National Association of Attorneys General.  In 2007, Ms. Halligan became a partner at the firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP, in New York, where she led the firm’s Appellate Practice until she returned to public service in her current role in January 2010.

Ms. Halligan has served as adjunct faculty at Columbia Law School since 2005, where she has taught an advanced seminar on federalism and constitutional law.  From 2007 to 2009, she served as pro bono counsel to the Board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the entity that is overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Ms. Halligan was born in Xenia, Ohio, and grew up in several different states, including Arkansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Florida.  She received her A.B. with honors from Princeton University in 1988 and her J.D. with high honors in 1995 from Georgetown University Law Center, where she served as managing editor of the Georgetown Law Journal.

Srikanth Srinivasan: Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Srikanth “Sri” Srinivasan is the Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States.  He is a highly-respected appellate advocate who has spent a distinguished career litigating before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals, both on behalf of the United States and in private practice.

Mr. Srinivasan began his legal career by serving as a law clerk for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1995 to 1996.  He then spent a year as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General before clerking for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor during the Supreme Court’s 1997-98 term.  He was an associate at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP in Washington, D.C., from 1998 until 2002.  In 2002, he returned to the Solicitor General’s Office as an Assistant to the Solicitor General, representing the United States in litigation before the Supreme Court.  For his work, he received the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Furthering U.S. National Security in 2003 and the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence in 2005.  In 2007, Mr. Srinivasan became a partner with O’Melveny & Myers LLP.  In 2011, he was named the Chair of the firm’s Appellate Practice Group.  He was named as the Principal Deputy Solicitor General in August 2011. 

Mr. Srinivasan is widely recognized as one of the country’s leading appellate and Supreme Court advocates.  He has argued before the Supreme Court twenty times, drafted briefs in several dozen additional cases, and has also served as lead counsel in numerous cases before the federal and state appellate courts.  He has also served as a lecturer at Harvard Law School, where he taught a class on appellate advocacy.
 
Mr. Srinivasan was born in Chandigarh, India, and grew up in Lawrence, Kansas.  He received his B.A. with honors and distinction in 1989 from Stanford University and his J.D. with distinction in 1995 from Stanford Law School, where he was elected to Order of the Coif and served as an editor of the Stanford Law Review.  He also holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, which he received along with his J.D. in 1995.