Three Southern California lawyers nominated to the federal bench were met by and large with friendly questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing held virtually Wednesday. 

Home state Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the committee, introduced and all but endorsed San Diego Jones Day partner R. Shireen Matthews and Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Robinson, both nominated by President Donald Trump to the Southern District of California bench, and Costa Mesa Greenberg Gross partner John W. Holcomb, who has been nominated to fill a seat in the Central District of California.

"I feel very privileged to be able to introduce you to the committee," said Feinstein, who acknowledge the awkwardness of having the nominees appear remotely by video. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, who was acting committee chairwoman for Wednesday's hearing, noted that the hearing was the first the committee has held on the nominations since the global pandemic took hold in the U.S. The hearing initially was slated for June 10 but was canceled at the last minute due to technical difficulties, Blackburn said.

Matthews, Robinson and Holcomb, who were joined in the hearing by Eastern District of Wisconsin nominee Brett Ludwig and Western District of Pennsylvania nominee Christy Wiegand, received largely friendly questions from senators on the committee. Feinstein noted that all three received "well qualified" ratings from the American Bar Association. Feinstein said that she was particularly pleased that Holcomb, a career prosecutor and U.S. Navy veteran, had been tapped for a position in the Southern District's Riverside courthouse, which she said is badly in need of judges.

Matthews, a partner in the San Diego office of Jones Day who is the daughter of immigrants, served an earlier stint as an associate at Latham & Watkins and as a prosecutor in the Southern District U.S. Attorney's Office. She also clerked for former Southern District Chief Judge Irma Gonzalez, whom Matthews called a "friend and mentor" of 15 years.

When asked by Feinstein about what she learned as a prosecutor that she would take to the bench, Matthews said that she learned to try a case, the nature of the docket in a district impacted by its proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border, and what it means to seek justice for victims, the public, and the defendant. Feinstein said the answer was "spontaneous and it made sense and it was well carried out." 

Holcomb, who practiced at Knobbe Martens before joining the Costa Mesa office of Greenberg Gross in 2018, said that the "technically complicated" nature of his intellectual property cases and the need to learn new technologies has prepared him for the wide variety of complex cases he would see if confirmed to the federal bench. 

Wednesday's hearing came in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision this week finding that the nation's workplace discrimination law protect LGBTQ workers, a decision penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee. Republican Sens. John Kennedy of Louisiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri took the occasion to probe the nominees on their philosophies on textual interpretation. Hawley said that the nominees should expect further written questions after the hearing on the topic.