President Obama Names Two to the United States District Court

WASHINGTON- Today, President Obama nominated Paul A. Engelmayer and Arvo Mikkanen to United States District Court judgeships.

“I am proud to nominate these two outstanding candidates to serve on the United States District Court,” said President Obama.  “I am confident they will serve the American people with integrity and distinction.”

Paul A. Engelmayer:  Nominee for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Paul A. Engelmayer has been a partner at the law firm of WilmerHale since 2000, where he specializes in white-collar criminal cases, complex civil litigation, appellate litigation, and securities enforcement investigations, and is the partner-in-charge of the firm’s 170-lawyer New York office.  Prior to joining the firm, Engelmayer spent three years as the Chief of the Major Crimes Unit at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.  From 1994 to 1996, Engelmayer worked in the Solicitor General’s Office at the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant to the Solicitor General.  Prior to that, he worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as the Deputy Chief Appellate Attorney in 1994 and as an Assistant United States Attorney from 1989 to 1994.  Engelmayer served as a law clerk to the Honorable Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1988 to 1989 and as a law clerk to the Honorable Patricia Wald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1987 to 1988.  Engelmayer received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1987 from Harvard Law School, and his B.A. summa cum laude in 1983 from Harvard College.

Arvo Mikkanen:  Nominee for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma
Arvo Mikkanen serves as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, a position he has held since 1994.  From 1988 to 1994, Mikkanen was an associate attorney at Andrews Davis Legg Bixler Milsten & Price.  During that same time, he also served as a trial and appellate judge for Court of Indian Offenses and Court of Indian Appeals for the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Wichita, Caddo, Delaware, Fort Sill Apache, Ponca, Pawnee, Kaw, Otoe-Missouria, and Tonkawa Tribes.  From 1991 to 1994, he served as the Chief Justice of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Supreme Court.  From 1987 to 1988, Mikkanen served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert M. Parker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, and from 1986 to 1987, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Lawrence S. Margolis of the U.S. Claims Court.  He received his J.D. in 1986 from Yale Law School and his B.A. in 1983 from Dartmouth College.