Federal judge in Lynchburg set to take senior status

The Virginia State Bar is set to interview candidates Monday to fill a vacancy left when Lynchburg-based U.S. District Court Judge Norman Moon takes senior status on July 1.

Moon, 73, started practicing law in the Lynchburg area in the 1960s. He has been a judge since 1974, when he started work in the local 24th circuit.

He joined the Virginia Court of Appeals in 1985 and was its chief judge from 1993 until 1997, when President Bill Clinton nominated him to his current position.

Moon said his senior status shouldn’t have much of an impact on the U.S. District Court here in Lynchburg because he plans to preside here well into the future. Looking out the window of his chambers at 12th and Court streets downtown, he mentioned that his mother would celebrate her 100th birthday this year.

“Maybe I’ll be on the bench until I’m 100,” he said.

None of the nine candidates set to be considered by both the state bar and the private Virginia Bar Association is based any closer than Charlottesville. Moon said having a federal judge here is important to ensure Lynchburg doesn’t revert to becoming the boondocks of the federal courts’ western district of Virginia.

Senior status allows judges to remain active and to maintain a staff and office while taking on a somewhat reduced caseload. In order to take senior status, a judge must be 65 and have a combination of age and years on the federal bench equaling 80 years. That is, a judge at age 65 with 15 years of experience may take senior status, as may a judge at 75 with five years on the bench. There are two other senior judges in the district, which encompasses the western two-thirds of Virginia. Moon was appointed to fill the vacancy created by one of those judges, Jackson Kiser, who is now in his early 80s.

“It’s a wonderful job if you like the work,” Moon said.

He is assigned to cases in the Lynchburg and Charlottesville districts. He said he expects that once an active judge is appointed, he will no longer hear cases in Charlottesville.

The Virginia State Bar’s judicial nominations committee is scheduled Friday to interview eight of nine candidates for recommendation. The Virginia Bar Association is considering the same candidates, although no formal interviews are scheduled.

Karen Gould, executive director of the state bar, said the committee will hold two votes: one to nominate “qualified” candidates and another to designate “highly qualified” candidates if there are any.

Gould said the committee report is set to be sent to senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner by April 26. Virginia Bar Association Executive Director Guy Tower said the association’s recommendations should be sent by the end of the month, too.

Webb spokesman Will Jenkins said the two senators will work together to gather a list of candidates, including those proposed by the bar associations, then conduct personal interviews before sending their recommendation on to the White House for the president’s nomination to the full senate.

“Senator Webb wants to fill the vacancy as soon as possible and will work to make this happen,” Jenkins said.

Warner spokesman Kevin Hall echoed those statements, but said the process could be an unfortunately lengthy one.

When Clinton nominated Moon, the Senate process took about a month. In the most recent Virginia nomination, it took about a year for Justice Barbara Keenan to be confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from the time the Virginia Bar Association sent her name to Webb and Warner.

Keenan, a former justice on the Virginia Supreme Court, was nominated by President Barack Obama in September 2009 and confirmed by the Senate in February.

Candidates being considered by the bar associations include:

• Virginia Senator and former U.S. Attorney for the Western District John S. Edwards of Roanoke;
• William Gould, of Washington, D.C., firm ObrienGould, recently the managing assistant U.S. attorney in Charlottesville and Harrisonburg;
• University of Virginia professor Rachel Harmon;
• William Helsley, of Harrisonburg;
• Frank Hilton, of Harrisonburg firm Wharton, Aldhizer & Weaver;
• Krysia Nelson of Charlottesville firm Nelson & Tucker;
• U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Pamela Meade Sargent, who sits primarily in Abingdon;
• Federal Public Defender Larry Shelton, whose office is in Roanoke;
• US. District Court Magistrate Judge Michael Urbanski, who sits primarily in Roanoke.