The U.S. Senate's push to confirm the Trump administration's court picks is set to resume Wednesday, as the judiciary committee takes up six more picks—one for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; another for U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; three for the Northern District of Illinois; and one pick for the Western District of North Carolina.

Among the nominees set to appear on Capitol Hill: Mary Rowland, up for a Chicago trial court seat, was reportedly the Trump administration's first LGBT judicial nominee. Carl Nichols, a Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr litigation partner, is in line for a seat on Washington's federal trial bench. McGuireWoods white-collar partner Kenneth Bell was picked for a North Carolina judgeship.

Last week, the Senate confirmed two appellate judges—A. Marvin Quattlebaum and Julius Richardson, both for the Fourth Circuit. Quattlebaum was a partner from 1997 to 2018 at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough in South Carolina, and Richardson had served as an assistant U.S. attorney in South Carolina since 2009. The two confirmations bring the total tally to 26 circuit court appointments and 53 overall court confirmations.

Here's a quick look at who's up Wednesday at Senate Judiciary:

➤➤➤ Jonathan Kobes, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Kobes, since 2016, has served as general counsel to U.S. Sen. Michael Rounds of South Dakota. He formerly served as director of corporate compliance at the agriculture industry manufacturer Raven Industries Inc. His primary duties there focused on “general compliance for the company's business operations and specifically export compliance.” His earlier professional associations include the American Bar Association (2002-03); Association of Corporate Counsel (2008-14); Federalist Society (1999-2004); and the National Rifle Association (2013-14). Kobes was an assistant U.S. attorney in Rapid City, South Dakota, from 2003 to 2005. The White House counsel's office in June 2017 reached out to Kobes to ask about his interest in serving on the Eighth Circuit.

Wilmer offices in Washington, D.C. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / NLJ

➤➤➤ Carl Nichols for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Nichols is vice chair of the government and regulatory litigation team at Wilmer in Washington. Nichols formerly was a top U.S. Department of Justice lawyer. Nichols reported earning $2.5 million in partner income at Wilmer last year, according to a financial disclosure. The previous year, he listed his income at $2.4 million. Average partner profits at Wilmer rose to $2.12 million in 2017. Nichols has been a Wilmer partner since 2010, when he joined the firm from Main Justice. He's served on the firm's management committee since 2017. Earlier, Nichols was a partner in the Washington office of Boies Schiller Flexner, working there from 1998 to 2005. Nichols got a call from the White House in December about his interest in serving on Washington's federal trial bench. Nichols clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during the 1997-98 term.

➤➤➤ Mary Rowland for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Rowland has served as a U.S.magistrate judge in Chicago since 2012. Earlier, she was a federal public defender from 1990 to 2000, and later a partner at the Chicago firm Hughes Socol Piers Resnick Dym from 2000 to 2012. “I have been involved in what some would call controversial cases,” Rowland, a civil rights litigator, told the Windy City Times in 2012. Rowland was co-counsel in representing more than 6,000 African-Americans who were denied jobs as entry-level firefighters. She was also on a case that challenged the strip-search of juveniles at a detention center in South Dakota. Rowland's professional associations include the American Bar Association (2014-15); Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago (2010-present); and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (1995-2000). Rowland is an out lesbian. In June 2017, she spoke at Seyfarth Shaw—as the LGBT month guest speaker—about her path to the bench as a lesbian. Rowland served as an uncompensated volunteer in November 2008 on the Obama for America voter protection team in Chesapeake, Virginia.

U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. Credit: Mike Scarcella / ALM

➤➤➤ Martha Maria Pacold for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Pacold, a former partner at Chicago-based Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott, is deputy general counsel to the U.S. Treasury Department, a post she has held since October. Pacold earned $800,000 as a partner at Bartlit Beck in 2016, her last full year at the firm, according to her financial disclosure. Pacold clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas from 2004 to 2005. Her co-clerks that term for Thomas included Jeffrey Wall, a former top appellate lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell who now serves as the principal deputy U.S. solicitor general, and Henry Whitaker, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. Jennifer Hardy, of counsel in the Kirkland & Ellis litigation practice, also clerked for Thomas that term. Pacold held two other clerkships—she clerked for Judge A. Raymond Randolph on the D.C. Circuit from 2002 to 2003, and the next year for Judge Jay Bybee on the Ninth Circuit.

➤➤➤ Kenneth Bell for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Bell is a McGuireWoods white-collar defense partner in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he's worked since 2009. Previously, he was a partner at Hunton & Williams from 2006 to 2009. His clients at McGuireWoods primarily include individuals and companies facing federal investigations or prosecutions. In 2016, Bell wrote a piece for The Charlotte Observer questioning then-FBI Director James Comey's assessment that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring a case against Hillary Clinton over her handling of email. “Comey got out of his lane in telling the world no prosecution should, or would, be brought. FBI agents investigate and present facts to prosecutors,” Bell wrote. “Prosecutors decide whether to bring charges. This decision wasn't up to Comey.” Bell was a federal prosecutor from 1990 to 2003, becoming supervisory assistant U.S. attorney in 1993. “Although first assistant United States attorneys do not usually carry an active caseload, I chose to prosecute cases in addition to my responsibilities as first assistant,” he wrote in his Senate questionnaire. As the lead deputy, Bell said he served under three U.S. attorneys during Democratic and Republican administrations. Bell unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Congress in 1990.

➤➤➤ Steven Seeger for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Seeger, since 2010, has served as a senior trial counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Chicago. Previously, he was a Kirkland & Ellis partner from 2003 to 2010. His clients in private practice were large commercial entities. Seeger said in his questionnaire that representative matters included contracts, torts, antitrust, fiduciary duties and insurance. Seeger told the Senate that he led an SEC case targeting a $200 million fraud that occurred on the eve of the financial crisis. Other high-profile matters included an insider-trading scheme and a “massive Ponzi scheme that victimized an NHL Hall of Famer, a decorated Olympian, scores of firefighters and other investors.” Seeger in April 2017 sent his resume to Illinois members of Congress to express his interest in serving on the Chicago federal trial bench, according to his questionnaire. Seeger said he would recuse, if confirmed, in any case involving the law firm Sidley Austin, where his wife is a partner. From 1997 to 1998, Seeger clerked for Judge David Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Seeger said he was a “sandwich artist” at a Subway store the summer of 1993 on Highway 55 in Medina, Minnesota.

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