THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

                    PRESIDENT CLINTON NOMINATES THREE 
                           TO THE FEDERAL BENCH

The President today nominated Judge Rosemary Pooler to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit New York, Mr. Robert Sack to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit New York, and Judge Christine O. C. Miller to serve on the United States Court of Federal Claims.

Judge Pooler, of Syracuse, New York, earned an undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College in 1959, a masters degree in History from the University of Connecticut in 1961, and a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1965. After graduating law school, Judge Pooler worked in private practice until 1971. She then worked in Syracuse's Corporation Counsel's Office from 1971 to 1973, following which she was an elected member of the Syracuse Common Council from 1974 to 1975. In 1975, Governor Hugh Carey appointed Judge Pooler to the Consumer Protection Board, where she served as Chair and Executive Director until 1980 when she was appointed to the New York Public Service Commission. In 1990, Judge Pooler was elected to a fourteen-year term as a judge on the state Supreme Court -- New York's trial court of general jurisdiction -- and served in the civil division of that court. In 1994, she was appointed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York by President Clinton. She was the first female federal judge appointed to the Northern District bench.

Mr. Sack, of New York, New York, graduated from the University of Rochester in 1960, and from Columbia University School of Law in 1963. Following law school, Mr. Sack clerked for Judge Arthur Lane of the U.S. District Court for New Jersey. In 1964, he joined the New York firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler. In 1974, he became Associate Special Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee's Impeachment Inquiry staff. Following his work on the Committee, he returned to Patterson, Belknap. In 1986, he joined the New York Office of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher as a partner, where he specialized in First Amendment litigation. He is the author of Libel, Slander and Related Problems.

Judge Miller, of Washington, D.C., received her B.A. degree from Stanford University in 1966, and her J.D. degree from the University of Utah College of Law in 1969. Upon graduation from law school, Judge Miller worked as a law clerk for the Honorable David Lewis on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. From 1970 to 1972, she was a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, where she was assigned to the Foreign Litigation Unit and later, the Court of Claims Section. She then spent two years as a trial attorney with the Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection. In 1974, Miller joined Hogan & Hartson as a litigation associate. From 1976 to 1978, she was Special Counsel to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, followed by two years as Assistant General Counsel for the U.S. Railway Association. In 1980, Miller joined Shack & Kimball, P.C. as an associate and in 1983, she became a partner with the firm. In 1982, Miller was appointed by President Reagan to her current position, which she assumed in 1983, as an Article I judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

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