Trump Taps Ex-Foley & Lardner Partner, 3 Others for Judiciary

President Donald Trump plans to nominate Brett Ludwig, a bankruptcy judge in the Eastern District of Wisconsin and former Foley & Lardner partner, to serve as a U.S. district judge in the same district, the White House said.

Ludwig took the bench as a bankruptcy judge in 2017, leaving behind his commercial litigation practice at Foley & Lardner, where he had also chaired the firm’s pro bono practice. Ludwig, a 1995 University of Minnesota Law School graduate, previously served as a law clerk to Judge George Fagg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

The White House also on Wednesday announced three other lawyers Trump intends to nominate for judicial vacancies in Ohio. Judicial nominations require Senate confirmation.

Philip Calabrese will be nominated to fill a seat in the Northern District of Ohio. He currently serves as a state judge in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland. Before taking that position last year, Calabrese was a partner Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, where he had co-chaired the firm’s class action practice, the White House said.

James Knepp II will be nominated to the Northern District of Ohio, the White House said. He has served as a U.S. magistrate judge in the same district since 2010. The Case Western Reserve University School of Law graduate served as a clerk to Judge Alice Batchelder of the Sixth Circuit.

Michael Newman, a magistrate judge in the Southern District of Ohio since 2011, will be nominated as a judge in the same district, the White House said.

Newman previously was a partner at Dinsmore & Shohl, where he was a labor and employment lawyer and led the firm’s pro bono appellate litigation program. The American University Washington College of Law graduate had served as a law clerk to Judge Nathaniel Jones of the Sixth Circuit.