Barnes’ Leichty confirmed to Indiana’s Northern District bench

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Damon Leichty has been confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, filling the last vacant seat on the federal bench in the Hoosier state.

In a vote that lasted 25 minutes, the U.S. Senate confirmed Leichty’s nomination Wednesday 85-10.

Leichty, a partner in the South Bend office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP, was nominated by President Donald Trump in July 2018 to fill the seat that was vacated when Judge Robert Miller Jr. took senior status. He appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee but had to be renominated because he did not receive a confirmation vote before the 115th Congress adjourned.

The committee approved his nomination on a rare voice vote in February.

Leichty’s elevation to the federal bench brings his legal career full circle. After he graduated from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 1999, he clerked for Miller from 2001 through 2003. He then joined Barnes, where he has remained.  

Since the Trump administration took office in 2017, four judges have been appointed to Indiana district courts and to one of the vacant Indiana seats on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Onto the Northern Indiana District Court, Leichty followed Holly Brady, who filled the seat formerly held by Senior Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen. In the Southern Indiana District, judges James Sweeney and James Patrick Hanlon were confirmed to fill vacancies created by Senior Judge Sarah Evans Barker and retired Judge William Lawrence, respectively.

Also, Judge Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed in 2017 to the Indiana seat that opened on the 7th Circuit when Judge John Tinder retired in 2015. 

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