A key Congressional judiciary panel is scheduled to decide this week whether the nomination of an Indianapolis attorney for U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana should proceed to the full Senate for a vote.

At 10 a.m. Thursday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is set to conduct a nomination hearing for Joseph H. Hogsett, who President Barack Obama nominated in July for the top prosecutor spot in that district.

Now a senior partner at Bingham McHale who’s been with the firm since 1997, Hogsett is a graduate from what’s now the Indiana University Maurer School of Law – Bloomington. He previously served as Indiana Secretary of State from 1989 to 1994.

As a part of the confirmation process, Hogsett has submitted a questionnaire for the committee members to review. A copy of that 64-page document can be found on the Senate Judiciary’s nomination page here.

If confirmed, Hogsett would take a position that hasn’t had a Senate-confirmed leader since October 2008 when Susan Brooks left to take a general counsel spot at Ivy Tech Community College. Longtime second-in-command and previous interim leader Tim Morrison took over that role temporarily, leading the office that includes roughly 30 lawyers on its 80-person staff.