Korean-American Nominated as US Federal Judge
Kim Da-ye
Contributing Writer
A U.S. federal district court will soon welcome the country's first female Korean-American federal judge.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Lucy H. Koh was nominated by U.S. President Barack Obama on Jan. 20 to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Koh passed a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday with a unanimous vote. She now waits for a Senate confirmation vote, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Koh, 41, was appointed to a judgeship for the County of Santa Clara by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2008.
At the time of the appointment, Schwarzenegger praised her, saying: ``Simply put, Judge Koh exemplifies the very best of the legal profession and will be an excellent federal judge.''
Before joining the court, she had been a litigation partner at international law firm McDermott, Will and Emery, specializing in patent, trade secret, and commercial civil matters.
The federal judge nominee was born in the U.S. to first-generation Korean emigrants to America. Sen. Barbara Boxer said: ``Her mother escaped from North Korea at the age of 10 by walking for two weeks into South Korea ― a dangerous track that required her to hide from North Korean soldiers along the way. Her father fought against the Communists in the Korean War and later immigrated to the United States.''
Koh received her bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1990 and a Juris Doctorate degree from Harvard Law School in 1993.
If confirmed, Koh will become the first female Korean-American federal judge and the second federal judge of Korean ancestry. The first person to serve on the federal bench was Herbert Young Cho Choy who was appointed in 1971 by President Richard Nixon to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.