THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

PRESIDENT CLINTON NOMINATES TWO TO THE FEDERAL BENCH

The President yesterday nominated Judge Kermit Lipez to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Maine; and Howard Matz to serve on the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Judge Lipez, of Portland, Maine, is currently a justice on Maine's Supreme Judicial Court. He graduated from Haverford College in 1963, and Yale Law School in 1967. He received an LL.M. from the University of Virginia's judicial process program in 1990. Following law school, Judge Lipez worked briefly for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. He then served as former Maine Governor Ken Curtis' Special Assistant and Legal Counsel from 1968 to 1971. In 1972, Judge Lipez worked for the late Senator Muskie as a legislative aide. Prior to his appointment to the Maine Superior Court in 1985, Judge Lipez spent twelve years in private practice in Portland, Maine.

Mr. Matz, of Los Angeles, California, received an A.B. degree from Columbia University in 1965, and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1968. He began his legal career as an associate with the law firm of Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, where he practiced from 1970 to 1974. From 1974 to 1978, he was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California. In 1978, Mr. Matz rejoined Hughes, Hubbard & Reed as a partner, and he practiced there until 1983, when he joined his current law firm of Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert & Matz, P.C.

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