President Obama Names Three to the United States District Court

WASHINGTON-Today, President Obama nominated Denise Jefferson Casper, Paul K. Holmes, III and Carlton W. Reeves to United States District Court Judgeships. 

“I am proud to nominate these distinguished individuals to serve on the United States District Court, said President Obama.  “I am confident they will serve on the federal bench with distinction.” 

Denise Jefferson Casper:  Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts

Denise Jefferson Casper currently serves as the Deputy District Attorney for the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, Cambridge, Massachusetts, overseeing the daily operations of one of the largest district attorney's offices in New England.  Prior to assuming her current position, Casper taught legal writing at Boston University School of Law from 2005 to 2007.  She previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Boston from 1999 to 2005, and was promoted to Deputy Chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force in 2004.  Casper also practiced as a civil litigator in the Boston office of Bingham McCutchen LLP (formerly Bingham, Dana & Gould) from 1995 to 1998.  After law school, Casper clerked for the Honorable Edith W. Fine and the Honorable J. Harold Flannery of the Massachusetts Appeals Court.  She received her J.D. in 1994 from Harvard Law School and her B.A. in 1990 from Wesleyan University.

Paul K. Holmes, III: Nominee for the United States District Court, Western District of Arkansas

P.K. Holmes is Of Counsel at the Fort Smith, Arkansas, office of Warner, Smith & Harris PLC, where he specializes in commercial litigation and white-collar criminal matters.  He was a partner in the firm from 2001 to 2009, following eight years of service as United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas beginning in 1993.  As U.S. Attorney, Holmes served for two years on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.  Previously, Holmes had been a partner, since 1980, and an associate, since 1978, at the firm now known as Warner, Smith & Harris.  He received his B.A. in 1973 from Westminster College and his J.D. in 1978 from the University of Arkansas School of Law.

Carlton W. Reeves: Nominee for the United States District Court, Southern District of Mississippi

Carlton W. Reeves is a partner in the law firm of Pigott Reeves Johnson, P.A., in Jackson, Mississippi.  Since co-founding a predecessor firm in 2001, Reeves has tried cases to verdict and argued a variety of appeals in both federal and state courts.  Previously, Reeves served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi from 1995 to 2001, where he was Chief of the Civil Division.  After law school, Reeves clerked for the Mississippi Supreme Court from 1989 to 1990, and then served the court as a staff attorney in 1991 before joining the law firm of Phelps Dunbar, L.L.P, where he was an associate from 1991 to 1995.  He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Jackson State University in 1986 and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1989, where he received the Mary Claiborne and Roy H. Ritter Fellowship in Recognition of Outstanding Honor, Character, and Integrity.