The Chicago IP Litigation Blog has a nice tradition of welcoming new judges to the federal bench. I’m going to extend that tradition west to Seattle. Therefore, without further ado, STL congratulates longtime Shelton, Wash., attorney Benjamin H. Settle (pictured right) for becoming the Western District’s sixth full-time judge. On July 8, he filled the Tacoma-based vacancy left by Judge Franklin D. Burgess when Judge Burgess assumed senior status.
President Bush nominated Mr. Settle for the judgeship on Jan. 9 after a previous nomination lapsed at the end of the last Congress. The Senate confirmed him on June 28 with a 99-0 vote with one senator not voting.
“It must have just come at the right time,” he told The Olympian daily newspaper of Olympia, Wash. “I had been practicing in Shelton for 28 1/2 years at the time I applied. I was approaching 60 and had an opportunity to do something quite different than I had, and it would be challenging.”
Mr. Settle was backed by Washington’s former Senator Slade Gorton, who wrote a letter of recommendation on his behalf. Sen. Gorton wrote that Mr. Settle is “highly ethical, and highly competent, exactly the kind of person that I think is totally qualified to be a U.S. District Court judge.”
As an attorney, Mr. Settle practiced corporate and government law at Settle & Johnson, a firm he helped found.
Congratulations, Judge Settle!
Photo credit: The Shelton-Mason County Journal