Paul Matey testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing to be U.S. circuit judge for the Third Circuit, on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

President Donald Trump announced that he would renominate 51 people for district and appeals court seats on the federal bench, including Paul Matey—a partner in the white-collar criminal defense practice at Lowenstein Sandler in New Jersey and once an adviser to Gov. Chris Christie—for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Matey was among those whose nominations remained pending at the end of 2018, which closed the last Congressional session. Before that time, Matey had advanced to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, which was held last November. He was originally nominated in April 2018 to fill the seat vacated by Third Circuit Judge Julio Fuentes, who took senior status.

Matey didn't immediately provide a comment on the pending renomination.

Prior to joining Lowenstein, Matey was senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at University Hospital in Newark, where he handled legal and regulatory matters. Before that, he served as senior counsel and then as deputy chief counsel to Christie, advising him on the legality of legislation and executive orders.

Just before joining Christie's legal staff, Matey served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, where he prosecuted white-collar crimes and child protection cases. Prior to that he spent two years as a litigation associate at the Washington, D.C., law firm Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel. He was a clerk for Third Circuit Judge Robert E. Cowen and also clerked for New Jersey District Judge John C. Lifland.

Matey received his B.A. from the University of Scranton, and his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Seton Hall Law Review.

His time advising Christie yielded some tough questions at his Nov. 13, 2018, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, including about the Bridgegate scandal. Matey told committee members that he had “no knowledge, or involvement or participation in any of those events,” and that “we certainly took steps to ensure at all times that the highest standards of ethics were followed in the office. Regrettably, that did not appear to happen in this case.”

In addition to Matey, the slate of renominations includes picks for district courts in Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania. It also includes nominees for the Ninth, Second and D.C. circuits.

Among the names are Wendy Vitter for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Allison Jones Rushing for the Fourth Circuit, Neomi Rao for the D.C. Circuit, and Chad Readler and Eric Murphy for the Sixth Circuit.