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Thursday, January 24, 2002
By Torsten Ove, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
President Bush yesterday nominated three local lawyers to judgeships in U.S. District Court.
Bush named Joy Flowers Conti and Art Schwab, both lawyers at the Downtown firm of Buchanan Ingersoll, and Allegheny County Solicitor Terry McVerry to fill long-standing vacancies on the federal bench.
The three must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, a lengthy process that could be dragged out because of a backlog of nearly 70 other nominees for federal judgeships.
"I'm expecting it could be months," said Conti, who said she was honored to have been chosen and promised to do her best as a federal judge.
Schwab said he is eager to serve, too.
"My family and I are very joyful," he said. "I'm looking forward to being of service in Western Pennsylvania."
McVerry couldn't be reached yesterday.
The Western District of Pennsylvania has been short of its full complement of 10 judges for years.
Currently there are four vacancies. When U.S. District Judge William Standish takes senior status in March, it will be five. And when U.S. District Judge D. Brooks Smith is confirmed by the Senate for a position on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, it will be six.
The filling of judicial vacancies nationwide has been hindered repeatedly by partisan bickering. The delay in getting local judgeships filled was rooted in a political dispute between former President Clinton and Pennsylvania's Republican senators, Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter. But now the process seems to be moving forward.
"It's a real breakthrough," said Schwab.
Schwab is chief counsel for complex litigation at Buchanan Ingersoll. A 1968 graduate of Grove City College, he received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1972.
Conti, a 1973 graduate of Duquesne University law school, is a former tenured professor of law at Duquesne and taught courses on corporations, corporate finance, corporate reorganizations and bankruptcy.
McVerry, a former state legislator, worked as an assistant district attorney and is a former Allegheny County Common Pleas judge.