Press Release - President Obama Nominates Three to Serve on the United States District Court

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama nominated James Donato, Judge Beth Labson Freeman and Jennifer Prescod May-Parker for District Court judgeships.

"I am pleased to nominate these distinguished individuals to serve on the United States District Court bench," said President Obama. "I am confident they will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice."

James Donato: Nominee for the United States District Court for the Northern District of California

James Donato is a litigation partner in the San Francisco office of Shearman & Sterling LLP, where he has worked since 2009. His practice concentrates on antitrust litigation and class action lawsuits. Previously, Donato worked at Cooley LLP from 1996 to 2009 and served as a Deputy City Attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney's Office from 1993 to 1996.  Beginning in 1990, he spent three years working as an associate at Morrison & Foerster LLP. He began his legal career as a law clerk for Judge Procter Hug, Jr., on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1988 to 1989. Donato received his J.D. in 1988 from Stanford Law School, where he was an Executive Board member of the Stanford Law Review. He received his A.M. in 1984 from Harvard University and his B.A. in 1983 from the University of California at Berkeley. In 2008, he was President of the Bar Association of San Francisco. 

Judge Beth Labson Freeman: Nominee for the United States District Court for the Northern District of California

Judge Beth Labson Freeman has been a Judge on the San Mateo County Superior Court since 2001 and was elected by her colleagues to serve as Assistant Presiding Judge from 2009 to 2010 and Presiding Judge from 2011 to 2012. In her role as a judge, Judge Freeman has presided over a broad array of civil and criminal matters. Prior to her appointment to the bench, she was Deputy County Counsel at the San Mateo County Counsel's Office from 1983 to 2001. She began her legal career by working at the law firms of Lasky, Haas, Cohler and Munter, from 1981 to 1983, and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver, and Jacobson, from 1979 to 1981. Judge Freeman received her J.D. in 1979 from Harvard Law School and her B.A. in 1976 from the University of California at Berkeley.

Jennifer Prescod May-Parker: Nominee for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

Jennifer Prescod May-Parker is the Chief of the Appellate Division at the United States Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of North Carolina, a position she has held since 2010. She has served as an Assistant United States Attorney since 1999 and, in that capacity, has prosecuted a broad spectrum of cases at both the trial level and on appeal. From 1998 to 1999, May-Parker worked as an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Environmental Division of the North Carolina Department of Justice. She began her legal career by serving as an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney's Office from 1991 to 1998. May-Parker received her J.D. in 1991 from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and her B.A. in 1988 from the State University of New York at Geneseo.