An AUSA, White House Lawyer and State Judge: Trump's Latest Judicial Nominees

Katsas currently works as deputy assistant and deputy counsel for the president. A former Jones Day partner, he earned $3.9 million from his partnership in 2016, according to financial disclosures. His clients included major corporations like R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Chevron.

Katsas also served in various positions at the Justice Department from 2001 to 2009, including assistant attorney general for the Civil Division and acting associate attorney general. He clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge Edward Becker at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Princeton University.

• Ryan Bounds for the Ninth Circuit.

Bounds is an assistant U.S. attorney in Oregon, and served as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia. He’s spent time at Main Justice as counsel, chief of staff and deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy from 2004 to 2007.

He worked in private practice at the firm Stoel Rives in Portland, Oregon, and clerked for Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain on the Ninth Circuit. He got his J.D. from Yale Law School and his bachelor’s from Stanford University.

• Elizabeth Branch for the Eleventh Circuit.

Branch serves on the Georgia Court of Appeals, where she was appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal in 2012. She began her career in private practice at Smith, Gambrell & Russell in Atlanta, and worked there before becoming a judge.

She worked in the federal government from 2004 to 2008, as counselor to the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and as associate general counsel for rules and legislation at the Department of Homeland Security. She clerked for U.S. District Judge J. Owen Forrester of the Northern District of Georgia, and attended Emory University School of Law. She got her bachelor’s from Davidson College. 

• Matthew Petersen for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Petersen is a commissioner on the Federal Election Commission, where he’s served since his nomination by President George W. Bush in 2008. He was the chairman of the commission in both 2010 and 2016, and vice chairman in 2009 and 2015.

Prior, he spent several years in Congress serving as counsel to the House Committee on House Administration and the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. He worked as an associate at Wiley Rein from 1999 to 2002. He attended the University of Virginia School of Law and got his bachelor’s from Brigham Young University.

• R. Stan Baker for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.

Baker already works in the Southern District of Georgia as a magistrate judge. Prior, he worked in private practice at the Jordan Firm on St. Simons Island. He also began his legal career at the Southern District, clerking for Judge William T. Moore for two years. He attended Davidson College and the University of Georgia School of Law.

• Walter David Counts III for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.